Bonnie Lillywhite

Bonnie Lee Wade Lillywhite 10 October 1932 ~ 22 September 2019

Everyone thinks their mom was the best, and they’re right. Our mom was all of that good that you know in your own mother. And she was a mother to many. She was one of the kindest and most positive people you could know. Our home was often a center of activity for all of our friends. My friends enjoyed it because there were usually cookies in the cupboard and milk and orange juice in the fridge.

She passed gently and triumphantly through the veil early this morning. She had struggled with a failing body for several years. Pain was her constant companion. It is good to know that now through the grace of Christ and His resurrection she is pain free and we can remember her as a beautiful vibrant daughter of God.

The loving wife of Craig Watson Lillywhite, she was born in Los Angeles to Edward Boone Wade and Dorothy Mae Lee. She joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at age 15 and soon became part of a large group of youth and young adults in the LA area who supported each other in their many activities. She met Craig who was also part of this group and they married on 25 August 1954 in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple.

Bonnie and Craig raised six children in the central Orange County area. They and their family are well remembered among many friends who still live there. She served in many and varied callings in the Church and was always active and involved.

She was forever a consummate genealogist and finder of lost family. When the children were grown, Bonnie was persuaded to join the American Research Bureau where she worked for over 15 years and helped greatly in their achieving another level of expertise and success. She is remembered with honor among her former colleagues in the heir search business. Her stint with ARB brought her to Murray, Utah where she and Craig had a second home and then their main residence for about 10 years.

Bonnie and Craig served full time missions for the Church in Kenya (2000-2001) and Guam (2004-2005). A fun side note: in 2000 they were originally called to Islamabad, Pakistan. The country had only recently become a nuclear power and experienced a military coup. It was soon decided that Kenya would be safer. The day they arrived in Nairobi the office staff had been robbed at gunpoint. Bonnie would have liked to serve further missions. But, her physical ailments made that impossible. They moved to Saint George in 2002 and have called that their home base ever since.

She leaves to mourn and rejoice for her: her loving husband Craig, six children: Kim (Ed) Hoke In Fountain Valley, California, Wade (Kimberly) Lillywhite in Irvine, California, Todd (Lenore) Lillywhite in Murray, Utah, Sean (Jennifer) Lillywhite in Aliso Viejo, California, Kristin (Stuart) Porter in Orem, Utah, and Aron (Raeann Campbell) Lillywhite in Scottsdale, Arizona. Also 23 grandchildren and 44 great grandchildren (two currently serving as missionaries). (The genealogist in her would have us list them all. But we can’t remember their names.) Also many other friends and loved ones across the world. Her testimony of the Gospel is best observed now in the greatness and goodness of the progeny she leaves to the world.

She was predeceased in death and greeted home joyfully by her parents, a sister Carole Linda Wade Kay (whose children Bart and Brent Kay survive), and her first grandchild Brenna Lee Andreason.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 11:00am at the Morningside 6th Ward LDS Chapel located at 930 S. Morningside Drive, St. George, Utah 84790. A viewing will be from 10:00-10:45 am prior to services at the same location.  Interment will be at the Tonaquint Cemetery.