Dee Walton

Dee Walton passed away January 26, 2015. She had long waited for death to reunite her with loved ones she had lost and so profoundly missed particularly with her husband Scott. Dee was smart, loving, stubborn and no stranger to hard work. She herself would want you to know that as a fifth grader she was the principal's favorite substitute teacher. She was also a fearless jumper of the deep fissures in the red sandstone cliffs behind her childhood home and an adored first female child who, as a six-year-old with unruly red hair and freckles, read history books and ranch romances aloud to her grandparents. Her surviving children want you to know they are deeply grateful for her ferocious love and unfailing kindness. She tangled with school districts on their behalves and battled traffic to deliver them to dance, speech and singing lessons, thus giving them opportunities she didn't have as one of 11 siblings growing up in rural eastern Utah during the Great Depression. Dee was artistic. In her better years she loved painting her children's portraits and creating enviable clothes for them and her grandchildren. She also loved spending countless hours outside in her garden surrounded by beautiful flowers. She was born to David and Frances Clark in Altonah, Utah on January 6, 1929. Her christian name was Frances DeMar, a name she insistently shortened to Dee throughout her life. She left high school in the Uintah Basin and came to Salt Lake City where she met and married Scott Walton, completed her education, and became a draftsman for Cordin Company. In her 86 years of life, Dee survived debilitating health problems and the deaths of her infant son, parents, husband, daughter and many of her siblings. A viewing for family and friends will be held Saturday, January 31, 2015, 11:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. at McDougal Funeral Home, 4330 S. Redwood Rd., Taylorsville, UT with graveside services to follow, 1:00 p.m. at Elysian Burial Gardens, 1075 E. 4580 S., Salt Lake City, UT.