Laura (Huntsman) Drexl

Laura Huntsman Drexl passed away peacefully with her family by her side on November 18, 2015 at the age of 97. 

Born on February 2, 1918, in Enterprise, Utah, to goodly parents, Emery Edward and Ida Barbara Staheli Huntsman, Laura was the fifth of twelve brothers and sisters.  She was named after her maternal aunt, Laura Sophia.

Emery was a real-life cowboy and Ida was an amazing homemaker: a master seamstress, great cook, and loving mother.  Laura’s sisters were some of her closest friends and she described her childhood as wonderful.

Since her birth was in the winter months when the water sources were frozen, her baptism as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had to wait until June 6, 1922, four months after her eighth birthday, when the canal had warmed-up.

While in seventh and eighth grade, Laura played both basketball and softball on the Enterprise high school team.  She played second shortstop between 2nd and 3rd base.  She loved running and ran everywhere.

When her father was asked to be the church janitor, he would frequently ask Laura to perform one of his jobs of ringing the church bell 30 minutes before meetings.  She would run to the church and pull the heavy rope with just the right cadence so everyone in town would know it was time to leave for meetings.

Singing and dancing were staples of the Huntsman home.  Laura had a natural voice for singing; a second soprano or alto.  She didn’t have perfect pitch like many of her family, but enjoyed singing.  Many of her favorite times were around a piano, singing with family or friends.

At the beginning of her senior year, Mr Holt, the band teacher said, “Laura, come and play the drums for the band.”  She answered, “I’ve never played drums.”  He responded, “Come and just try.”  She did and loved playing the drum set (snare, base drum, and cymbal) for her senior year.

Laura grew up dancing and took to it with a passion. 

“The first time I saw a young girl, dressed in pink and just a few years older than me, show us the new dance, the Charleston, I knew that’s what I wanted to do—dance and be able to teach others to dance.  I watched her dance the Charleston three times, and then I could dance it also.” 

Her oldest sister Elda was her first and best dance teacher.  Her hometown of Enterprise, Utah, had children’s dances for every holiday.  Laura attended those dances and quickly advanced to the weekly adult dances.  They did a lot of ballroom dancing and the Virginia Reel.

“In the early days we danced in the church building or in the open-air place built by the school.  Either the town dance band played for us, or many times it would be just a piano, drums, and a horn or two, and maybe a guitar or banjo.  Many of the people in town would go to be spectators and sit around the outside of the room on benches.”

Her oldest sister, Elda, would go to dances in St. George and come home to teach Laura the dances she learned.  Laura’s dream was to be a professional dancer.  She was able to fulfill this dream when as she participated in many dance floor shows.

This love for dancing also led to many callings in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  While in high school she was called to be the ward dance director.  Her talent was recognized as she was then called to be a Stake Dance Director and District Dance Director.  In 1964, she was called to be on the MIA General Board Dance Committee.  This calling would last nine years and enable her to teach dancing to people throughout the world.  Included in that instruction and direction were All-Church Dance Festivals.  The young people she taught were known and considered as her “kids.”

When the church dance callings stopped, Laura would continue dancing throughout her life.  Well into her 80s, if there was a big band orchestra in town you would find her and her husband dancing until the last song.

Her other callings in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started in high school when she was called to be an assistant Sunday School secretary.  After she graduated from high school she was called to be the Sunday School secretary.  Her duties included keeping the rolls and ordering the Sunday lesson quarterly leaflets for the 700 people in the one ward in Enterprise.  To fulfill this responsibility, she took orders, gathered the 25 cents from each family, kept track of who paid and then distributed the leaflets after receiving them.  This duty was very special to her because she was asked to hold this responsibility at such a young age.

After high school, Laura had many jobs that took her away from home.  She was a nanny in St. George and maid at a home in Los Angeles for a family that was looking for a “Mormon girl” because they were told Mormon girls could be trusted.  At some point in each of these jobs, Laura would return home to take care of her mother, younger siblings, who were still in school, and sometimes a sister who was having a baby.  As the oldest unmarried daughter it was her responsibility, and she never shirked from it.

In the summer of 1941, a man came to Enterprise who needed waitresses for a café in Glendale Junction, Nevada.  Two girls went back with him, one of them was Laura.

LeRoy Charles Drexl, who is known as Roy to most, had recently been discharged from his first tour in the Navy.  He started working at the CAA (later changed to the FAA) at the Mormon Mesa Airport in California on September 11th.  The airport was just a few miles from the café.

On October 11, 1941, Roy walked into the café and met Laura for the first time.  Both were dating other people, but it was enough of a meeting that Laura mentioned it in her diary.

By February 1942, Laura and Roy started to date.

“I taught Roy to dance on the back roads of Nevada.  We’d turn on the radio in his car to Big Band music and he learned the different dance steps.”

Roy wasn’t a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Together they had many talks about religion.  As she taught Roy about the Gospel, he would say, “That makes sense.”

When Laura left her job at the café in 1942, she and Roy cried as the bus pulled away from the station because they knew there was something between them.  The Mormon Mesa Airport closed a few months after Laura left. 

To her surprise, Roy asked to be transferred to the Enterprise Airport.  After being apart, the couple realized their love for each other and made plans to be married.

They visited Roy’s parents in Los Angeles that October.  Roy’s mother was devastated when she found out that he was going to marry a Mormon girl.  His father stepped-in and told Roy to go ahead with his plans and not let his mother stop him.  This experience with Roy’s family is when Laura knew she wanted to marry him.

They were engaged that Christmas Eve in front of the milk separator in her parents’ kitchen.  They were married on May 11, 1943.  The original location was St. George, but their blood tests had expired and they were not able to get marriage licenses.  So they continued down the road to Las Vegas, where they arrived just before the license department closed.  So it was there, in the town of Las Vegas, that the Drexl family started.

World War II had begun in 1939 and with the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States became an active participant.  Roy and Laura knew that it would only be a matter of time before he was drafted.  They decided to make the best of their time together. 

Roy became an Emergency Relief Aircraft Communicator and traveled between various airports in the region for times that lasted between a few days to a few months.  The newlyweds learned to pack their lives into their car and be able to leave on a moment’s notice.

Roy’s growing testimony of Jesus Christ and the restoration of the Gospel reached a milestone when he was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on August 15, 1944, in the basement of Heritage Hall in Enterprise, Utah.

Later that month, the US Navy reactivated Roy. After a little over two years together, Roy and Laura were parted again.  Four months after Japan surrendered and the war ended in 1945, Roy was discharged once again and he returned to Laura’s waiting arms.

Roy obtained an Aircraft Communicator job at the St. George Airport to be close to Laura’s family and feel like they could start their own family.  Now that the couple were able to be in one place for a while, they were sealed in the St. George temple on October 24, 1946 for time and all eternity.

The next August, their first child, Susan was born.  Known as Sue by all, she brought even more joy into their lives.

Daggett, California, was the next stop for the family where Roy worked at the airport.  While there, he saw a job in Salt Lake come over the FAA teletype.  He bid on the job and became the Aircraft Communicator for the Salt Lake Airport.

Roy started work on July 26, 1952, and the family moved to their first home in Salt Lake City on MacArthur Avenue on September 3, 1952.  It was here that their second child, Delilah was born on October 8, 1952.  Known as Lila, she not only filled Roy and Laura with even more joy, but also enchanted her sister, Sue.

As Roy continued to do well in his job at the Salt Lake Airport and the family saved money, they built a home outside of Salt Lake, an area now considered part of Millcreek City.  They moved into the house a couple days after Christmas in 1961.

Together they raised their two daughters and Laura dedicated her life to being a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

After Roy retired from his FAA job at the Salt Lake Airport, he and Laura left in February 1979 to serve a mission in Portland, Oregon.  They loved their time teaching the Gospel and serving others.  Unfortunately, due to health issues, they had to return home much earlier than they wished.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ was the lighthouse of Laura’s life.  Her testimony of the Savior influenced many.  Every member of her family is willing to describe the effect she had on their lives and they, as well as many others, have said, “She is an example of what I want to be like.”

Laura is preceded in death by her parents, her beloved husband Roy and daughter Lila (Drexl) Foster, son-in-law Kurt Carlson, granddaughter LiMin Hansen, nine of her brothers and sisters and their spouses: Leland (Wanda and Donna), Merlin (Lenore), Elda Lee, Lilly (Harold), Winona (Lowell), Delilah, Karma (Leo), John (Beulah), and Allie (Reed).

Laura is survived by her daughter Sue Carlson (Kurt, deceased); son-in-law Dennis Foster (Miriam); one sister Lenora Truman (Melvin, deceased), one brother Lewis Huntsman (Jeanette), and one brother-in-law Cec Lee (Elda deceased); ten grandchildren and their spouses whom she also considered her grandchildren:  Brett and Alicia Thelin, RaChelle (Foster) and Charlie Sumpter, Jody (Thelin) and Erik Hansen, Teri (Foster) and Ryan Josephson, Todd and Amelia Thelin, Christopher Robin (CR) and MarKay Thelin, Stephanie (Foster) and Jake Hunter, Catherine Thelin, Jennifer (Thelin) and Carl Kynaston, and Timothy and Allison Thelin; and 23 great grandchildren:  Meagan, Madeline, Alexander, Samuel, Sophie, Lucy, Peter, Karrsten, Chloe, Oliver, Hailee, Kelton, Kamry, Dawson, Payton, Madison, Savannah, Jake Jr., Shaylee, Summer, Maggie, Tilley, and Adelaide.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, November 21, 2015 at 1:00 pm at the Kenwood 2nd Ward, 1765 East 3080 South. Friends and family are invited to visit Friday evening 6:00-8:00 pm at the Holbrook Mortuary, 3251 South 2300 East, and at the church Saturday 11:30 am-12:30 pm prior to the service. Interment will follow at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park. 

 

Click below to listen to the Funeral Service. Available until February 19, 2016.