Edna Michaelson

Edna Rogers Michaelson Lewis Obituary

Logan Herald Journal, 02/21/08

Adored mother, grandmother, wife and friend, Edna Rogers Michaelson Lewis, was released from this life Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008, in Pocatello, Idaho. Her family will remember her as a woman who was "beautiful enough to be a movie star, sturdy enough to live the life of a pioneer and pure and gentle enough to be a saint."

Edna was born Dec. 28, 1920, in College Ward, Utah, near Logan, to Howard and Marie Rogers. She was the second of three children, with an older brother, Howard, and a younger sister, Rosemarie. Edna grew up in Pocatello and Preston, Idaho, and in 1938 graduated from Preston High School. As a young woman she often performed readings for different groups and organizations. During the Great Depression she often demonstrated the generosity that would mark her life by inviting children in off the street, feeding and cleaning them and sending them home with a warm loaf of bread.

On Nov. 7, 1941, Edna married Eldon James Michaelson, of Logan, after meeting him at the local roller skating rink. She endured the axiety and loneliness of a war bride, and while her husband, Eldon, fought in the Pacific, she worked in a munitions factory in the state of Washington. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Logan LDS Temple after the war. They had two sons, Dennis James and Paul Roger, and called Logan their home. During the earliest years of their marriage, the family lived in a rustic cabin in Dry Canyon in the mountains west of Bear Lake while Eldon worked at the family sawmill there. Edna not only made the most of the primitive arrangement without electricity and running water, but she thrived there, working side by side with her husband. She was responsible for feeding hungry loggers by cooking on an old wood stove and fetching water from a mountain spring.

While their two sons were still young, the family was called by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to head up the logging operation at a church welfare ranch near Kissimmee, Fla. Edna, as always, adapted to the situation with grace and resiliency. While living there, Edna was frequently responsible for entertaining and feeding visiting general authorities, and since she served as a Sunday school teacher for their small congregation, she was also regularly placed in the unenviable position of teaching them. On one Sunday she had to stand before a class that included two members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and one member of the First Presidency.

Some years after returning to Logan, Eldon suddenly died in 1961 at the young age of 41, and Edna once again made the most of difficult circumstances. She worked at Thiokol and later as a receptionist for a dental practice in Logan to support her sons and send them both on missions for the LDS Church and to college.

Edna remarried on May 5, 1967, to Lt. Col. Glen Lewis Jr., a retired Air Force officer and World War II hero who was a bomber pilot during the war. He has three children of his own: Karen Morgan, Christine Oak and David Lewis. Together Edna and Glen served an LDS mission in the Arizona, Phoenix Mission. They also served two temple missions, one to the Bountiful Temple and one to the Salt Lake Temple. They enjoyed traveling in their fifth-wheel throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Edna was a brilliant and gifted hostess. She made every occasion elegant and special, whether it was a Christmas open house for 200 people or a family night of playing board games. She also had a surprising sense of humor that often left her family and friends in stitches.

A lifelong member of the LDS Church, Edna served wherever she was needed, including as Relief Society president, stake Relief Society president and Primary president.

Edna is survived by her second husband, Glen Lewis Jr.; her sister Rosemarie Wiley; her sons, Dennis James (Karen) Michaelson of Pocatello, Idaho, and Paul Roger (Anne) Michaelson of Las Vegas, Nev.; and by her 14 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren. Edna is preceded in death by her first husband Eldon James Michaelson; by her parents, Howard and Marie Rogers; and by her brother, Howard Rogers.

Funeral services will be at noon Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008, at Allen-Hall Mortuary, 34 E. Center St., Logan, Utah. Friends and family may call one hour prior to the service. Interment will be at the Logan City Cemetery. Published in the Logan Herald Journal from 2/19/2008 - 2/26/2008.