Remembering Aunt Audrey

 

Audrey C. Lloyd

February 24, 1932 — March 29, 2023

Salt Lake City, UT

"Audrey Clark Lloyd passed away on March 29, 2023. She was born in 1932 in Bear Creek just outside of Yosemite National Park in California. Her parents were George Carlson Clark and Myrle Dillon who preceded her in death.

She spent her youth in Visalia, California. Her senior year in the Visalia High School she was a song/cheerleader and was a lead in two high school plays. As children her brother Donald and her were in all of the shows that the recreation department put on. She joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1943 and was always active. She was a Sunday School Secretary (SS), SS, and primary teacher and she was crowned Queen of the Gold and Green Ball.

In 1950 she moved to Salt Lake City and went to work for ZCMI and became a sales clerk and an assistant buyer for the girl's department. She met Harries A. Lloyd and was married to him by Mathew Cowley in the Salt Lake Temple on June 19, 1952.

She was a Relief Society, Primary and MIA President, and a hostess supervisor in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. She was a librarian and Stake Social Coordinator. She learned to cook Chinese food and became an excellent Chinese cook. She became a tap dancer and performed several times for people.

She traveled with her sister to Sweden where she met some of her ancestors. She was an avid genealogist and compiled 8 large loose-leaf binders of her ancestor's histories. She traveled to many different countries with her husband on a business trip around the world where he bought a company in Bangkok for Teledyne and shut down a completed engineering operation in Iran.

She is preceded in death by her 4 brothers and a sister.  She is survived by her husband a daughter Jennifer and a son Dale, 5 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren."

 Uncle Harris and I

This is how I remember Aunt Audrey:

   It was not a shock when I heard that my Great Aunt had died. She had been unwell for some time and when I heard that she had moved to hospice, I thought I was prepared.  Aunt Audrey had always been a stalwart presence in my life. From the time I was a little girl, I remember having Thanksgiving in her house and sitting by her at family functions. We had a long correspondence through letters. The last time I saw her was at her sister's funeral. We held each other and cried. I wish I had more pictures of her. Or any of the two of us. Alas, this was the era before digital photos. 

 Aunt Audrey had a presence around her. You could tell she had endured a lot, but always retained her ready smile. She loved talking about her kids. I spent a good hour with her a year or two ago reminiscing and commiserating.  I hated to leave, but the kids were restless, (kids don't like listening to two old ladies chat about their children and life as they found it.) I promised to visit again soon. You always think you have more time.  I will miss her, her generosity, her wit, and her sweet smile. I know she has happily reunited with her siblings and parents again, oh how she disliked being the last one left! She had always thought to go before my Grandma, but she outlasted them all. 91 is nothing to sneeze at! Til we meet again, my dear friend.