Johanna Margaretha Coomans Bowles

Johanna Bowles, 88, returned to her heavenly home on March 6, 2021. Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands on September 11, 1932 to Gerrit A. Coomans and Hendrika de Roo. Married her sweetheart, Oliver Trussler Bowles, in the Salt Lake Temple November 15, 1955.

Johanna emigrated from the Netherlands after World War II in 1947 to Salt Lake City, Utah, at the age of 14 with her family. She attended and graduated from East High School where she participated in choir and musicals. After high school she worked at several jobs in Salt Lake City and served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She met her future husband, Truss, on a blind date. They danced the night away and the rest is history. They were married on a freezing cold day in November.

They built their home in Taylorsville, Utah, where they raised their family. While mom could always speak her mind, dad was a gentle soul and they complimented each other very well. They were both very hard workers and taught the value of hard work to their children.

Mom worked for 60+ years as the secretary/bookkeeper for the family plumbing business. Being Dutch, Johanna always had an immaculately clean home. She always loved having the carpets vacuumed and the floors scrubbed and the sinks polished.

Music was a big part of mom’s life. She had a beautiful soprano voice and sang solos, duets, and in choirs throughout her life. Her love of music has been passed down to her posterity and she has thoroughly enjoyed the music programs that she has attended of family and friends.

Mom was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served faithfully in many callings. She especially loved serving in the Stake Relief Society Presidency with some very special life-long friends. She was very faithful in getting her visiting teaching accomplished each and every month and loved visiting with friends and neighbors. Our parents had strong testimonies of the Gospel and instilled their love of Heavenly Father and Jesus in their family.

She was most proud of her three children who were all Sterling Scholars at Cottonwood High School. Getting a good education was very important to her. She loved going to Hale Centre Theater and enjoyed the many plays she attended. She loved all cultural events.

She loved living in Taylorsville, Utah for 61 years and loved living in South Jordan, Utah for 5 years. She had many dear friends in both locations.

Preceded in death by her parents; loving husband; and sister Hermina Maria (Riet) Coomans.

Johanna loved her family and is survived by a sister, Maria Cornelia (Corrie) Duehlmeier; her three children, Lynn (Heidi), Sherrill (Jon) VanderStek, and Bruce (Claudia); 12 grandchildren; and 22 great-grandchildren with one more on the way. Johanna loved her posterity and attended as many of their events as she could. She was their biggest cheerleader!

A viewing for Johanna will be held at McDougal Funeral Home, 4330 South Redwood Road, on Friday, March 12th from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, March 13th from 10:00 – 10:45 a.m. at the LDS Country Crossing Stake Center located at 11122 South Blackhawk Drive (3370 West), South Jordan, Utah. A family funeral will follow at 11:00 a.m. To join the funeral virtually, please use the following link. http://mywebcast.churchofjesuschrist.org/Events/southjordanutahcountrycrossingstake

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