Verna Rae Meyer

Verna Rae (Nelson) Meyer passed away peacefully on the morning of Sunday, September 26, 2021 in Pocatello, Idaho.

Verna was born August 3, 1933 in Georgetown, Idaho, to Vernon Severine Nelson and Daisie (Ringel) Nelson. She was raised in the Montpelier area with her 2 sisters, Charlotte Skinner (Ivan(deceased) and Colleen Mathews (Rick).

She married Theodore (Ted) William Meyer on April 14, 1956. On April 23, 1965, the family was sealed together in the Salt Lake City Temple. She is survived by her three children, Corinne Meyer, Theresa Terry (Kelly) and Michele Bruun (Curtis).

Ted and Verna lived in various places as part of Ted's employment. They moved from Montpelier and lived in Nampa, Greeley, Bittercreek, Rock Springs, Green River, Las Vegas and St. Louis. Verna was a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served faithfully in various church callings and the community wherever she lived. She led every organization in the church, but she made her biggest impact while serving with the youth. She loved each young woman she served, with great love and compassion. While living in Green River, Ted and Verna became foster parent to La Rayne McCabe who she maintained a relationship with throughout her life. Verna loved everyone she met and considered each person she knew as her best friend.

After Ted retired, they served a full-time mission in the Nebraska Omaha Mission.

Verna also loved the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers where she served as a regional representative for many years. She taught each of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren the love of playing games which was one of the best parts about visiting her home! Most of all she loved being around her 9 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. She was an example of love and kindness to each of them.

Verna loved her Savior and emulated that love for Him showing kindness to everyone she encountered. She knew she was a valued child of God and loved everyone she met with a Christ-like love that genuinely touched each person she met. She will be greatly missed.

Due to COVID, a private graveside service will be held in Montpelier, Idaho. At a later date, we hope to celebrate Verna’s life with everyone she knew.

The following is Verna's LIFE SKETCH.
Verna Rae Meyer - or Mom, Grandma, and Grandma Great as her family called her - passed away peacefully on the morning of September 26, 2021 in Pocatello, Idaho. She was born on August 3, 1933 to Vernon Severine Nelson and Daisie
(Ringel) Nelson in the small town of Georgetown, Idaho. She was so proud of being from Georgetown. She always told her daughters two things about her hometown: (1) she loved the small country community which helped mold her into who she was and (2) SLOW DOWN! Because there was a cop that was always giving tickets if you were speeding.

She would eventually become the oldest of three sisters. Although Charlotte didn’t come along until Verna was 10 years old and Colleen 7 years after that. So, she really was the “older” sister. Despite their age difference, they have all remained
close throughout their lives. In Verna’s later years, Charlotte and Colleen called her almost every day to check on her welfare. She loved and admired both of them. Family was so very important to Verna. She was all about the family reunions and gatherings. This was due to the fact that she felt so loved and cared for by her extended family all through her years. One time when she was younger, her uncle Bob Ringel arrived to pick her up looking handsome and dapper in his full military uniform and took her to Soda Springs. They walked around downtown just window shopping and greeting the people passing by. This fun day made her feel so special and she definitely gained a proclivity for making everyone around her feel special throughout all her interactions.

She also adored her Grandma Nelson! As a young girl her grandma took care of her many weekends and other times when her parents went away. She wanted to be the same kind of grandma as her Grandma Nelson was to her. All of her grandchildren and great grandchildren will attest that she was an amazing grandma. In fact, she earned the title of Grandma Great from the great grandchildren because she was not only their great grandma, but she was the greatest great grandma. From the minute their toes touched the front porch she was doing anything and everything to make sure her grand kids had a fabulous time! From picnics at Scout Mountains, hours of Monopoly, Canasta or Bunco, adventures at Ross Park, and tea parties in the living room with the white furniture she made Grandpa and Corinne drag out, it was always a party at her house whenever the grandchildren came to town.

When Verna was a young adult, she struck out on her own and moved to Salt Lake City to become a telephone operator. It was quite an adventure! Verna met the love of her life in Montpelier, Idaho. She married Theodore William Meyer, or Ted as she lovingly referred to him, in Montpelier in 1956. She and Ted have three daughters - Corinne, Theresa, and Michele. Due to Ted’s employment with the Union Pacific Railroad, they lived in Montpelier, Nampa, Greeley, Bittercreek, Rock Springs, Green River, Las Vegas, and St. Louis. Verna loved every place she lived and made lifelong friends in each location.

Their move to Rock Springs, Wyoming in the early 60’s changed their lives forever. Verna was a strong, independent woman long before it mom was popular to be one. One day, Ted told her that their girls needed religion in their life and that she should take them to church. Verna told him if he wanted the girls to go to church, then he should go right ahead and take them. After much discussion and negotiation they decided they should attend church as a family and that they would all attend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Verna had been baptized a member as a child but wasn’t an active member at the time and Ted had never been a member. But they decided that was the church for them and the ward members of Rock Springs embraced them wholeheartedly and showed them so much love. Ted joined the church and their lifelong commitment to service began. When the Meyer family was sealed together for eternity in the Salt Lake Temple, many of the members of the Rock Springs Ward traveled to Salt Lake to attend the sealing. In the late 60’s they moved to Las Vegas and became members of the 19th Ward. She continued her commitment to serving others in the 19th Ward and made so many lifelong friends - and even picked up a son-in-law along the way.

Ever the independent woman, she took a job working in the fabric department of K-mart while she was living in Las Vegas.
They later moved back to Rock Springs after all of her girls were grown and moved out. She picked up right where she had left off continuing to serve and do whatever was asked of her. One day her bishop asked if she would be willing to be a foster parent and always being ready to serve, she said yes. LaRayne McCabe came to live with them for a short while and became her foster daughter and then lifelong friend.

When it was time for Ted to retire from the railroad, they wanted to be closer to Verna’s mom Daisie, so they retired to Pocatello where they spent the rest of their lives together. They adored Pocatello and all the people they came to know and love over their many years of living there. Their Johnny Creek Road home hosted many dinner parties, BUNCO nights, and family over the years they lived there. The grandchildren adored that home and had so many adventures on its acre of property. Verna just let them explore and make merry and never meddled in their mischief. She just filled their bellies with warm rolls and raspberry jam and played a card game or two after the sun went down.

Verna found so much joy in being a member of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers - or DUP as those in the know call it. She and Ted would travel around her area going from one DUP meeting to the next just enjoying each other's company and having a grand time with all the other women of the DUP they came in contact with. She tried so very hard to get her granddaughters into finding the same joy she did in the DUP and secretly hoped that one of them would be the next Days of ‘47 Queen. Sadly, this dream never came to fruition.

Later in life, Ted and Verna served a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Verna was very concerned about leaving her children and grandchildren, but her faithfulness and willingness to serve was rewarded and she was called to the Omaha Nebraska Mission. This brought them closer to both Theresa and Michele and she got to have visits from both of their family’s while she served. Their ward was half Spanish speaking and half Vietnamese speaking, and she didn’t speak either language! Never one to back down from a challenge, she enrolled in a community Spanish class while she was there so she could learn the language of the people she was serving.

Verna was ever the social butterfly. She loved going to lunch with friends, hosting and attending book club, being part of a BUNCO group and planning pretty much all the Relief Society dinners for as long as she was able. She had a big heart and the ability to get the job done and get it done right and so everyone always turned to her when it came time for a get together.

When she and Ted moved into the Whitewater house during their last years together, they got matching reclining chairs. Almost every picture the kids, grand kids and great grand kids took with Verna is with her sitting in her famous chair. It was a good benchmark to see how much everyone had grown since the last picture they took with grandma. She also had a running joke that it seemed a lot of her pictures were taken while she was wearing her purple or blue nightgown. Once she realized it, she started asking for advanced notice for pictures so she could be dressed in “something respectable” and not her purple or blue nightgown. You can’t think of Verna and not think of Corinne. Wherever one was, so was the other. They had a funny Lucy and Ethel kind of relationship - always finding themselves in some kind of hilarious predicament that they had to work their way out of together. Then when you talked to Verna, it was always, “You’ll never believe what happened to Corinne and me!” And most of the time the listener really couldn’t believe what had happened to the two of them. They were the best of friends and Corinne took special care of Verna the last few years and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We know Verna was so very thankful for the sacrifices Corinne made to be her caregiver.

Whether you called Verna friend, Mom, Aunt, Sister, Grandma or Grandma Great, if you knew her, you were loved by her, and she would have done everything in her power to make sure you never left her home feeling otherwise. Her oldest granddaughter wrote of her, “She was raspberries and cream, board games, party hostess with the mostess, handwritten letters, Perry Mason, DUP Grand Poobah, homemade rolls and candy, BUNCO, squishy hugs, Diet Pepsi, Grandma Great, books and faith.”
She will be greatly missed.