Verna May Long

I always said, "If life were told as fiction, no one would believe it." As I leave my last farewell to family and friends I have loved, and who have loved me, I try to capture 88 wonderful, interesting and exciting years in these few words.
Dad, Alexander V. Stephens, called me The Queen of Burch Creek when I was born as Verna May Stephens on Feb. 22, 1920, in Ogden, Utah, because I had four older brothers: John, Wallace, Robert, and Roy. I am with them now, and with mother, Angelena Van Daalen, and my younger brother Dale. I leave the "little kids," Shirley (Arizona) and Lee (California), until a later date.
I also leave my beloved children, Shari Kooyman (Ken), Fallbrook, California; Paula Hill (Rodney), Saratoga Springs; LeAnn Hunt (Russell), Spanish Fork; Daniel Monsen (Deborah), Placentia, California; and Valorie Forester (Richard), Lehi, plus numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Stay true until we meet again!
I was married during the Depression years to Paul Hayden Mortensen, moving to California where he worked in a defense plant and was accidentally killed just before World War II. I came back to Utah and was a Rosie the Riveter at Hillfield, where I met and married Harold Monsen, who served in the Navy as part of The Greatest Generation. We moved back to California, and lived in Lynwood, Brea, and La Habra. I faced burying a second husband when Harold died of heart problems.
I moved to Laguna Hills, then East Los Angeles, and finally Fallbrook, where I met and married Jean O. Long. We lived on our beautiful avocado ranches, and finally made one more move, to Spanish Fork, Utah. I have been blessed to spend the last nineteen years of my life with a wonderful and loving husband, who was with me as I set out on my final journey, and for whom I await.
Since I am telling my own story, I will mention that I was a red-head, and leave out the fiery temperament that goes with it. I was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and loved serving in many callings, from Stake Primary President to Seminary teacher to chorister. I worked as a radio-isotope technician at St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton, and then for many years I had a drapery shop in La Habra, Santa Ana and Fallbrook. I enjoyed the beauty I was able to create in the many homes I decorated.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, March 21, 2008 in the Somerset Ward, 989 South 2550 East in Spanish Fork. A viewing will be held at the church from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 20, and one hour prior to services on Friday, where friends and family may call. Interment will follow at Aultorest Memorial Park in Ogden, Utah