Jenay Austin Hoffman

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Our beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother Jenay Austin Hoffman, 90, passed away peacefully on February 16, 2025, in St. George, Utah. 

 Jenay was born on November 23, 1934 to Clarence Waddoups Austin and Glenna King Austin in Logan, Cache County, Utah. She was the oldest of seven children. She spent her early years on family farms in Juniper, Lemhi, and Salmon, Idaho, and in Darby, Montana, before moving to Logan in 1941. While attending North Logan High School and Utah State Agricultural College (now known as Utah State University), Jenay lived on the family farm in Benson, Utah. Jenay was a good student and a capable musician, learning to play both the violin and the piano, and sometimes played the violin and sang in church meetings. She was active in her local ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and learned the value of hard work and thriftiness as her family endured the Great Depression and World Ward II. She learned to sew her own clothes by age 13. During high school, she did various jobs, including working at the Herald Journal, at a motel, babysitting, and ironing. At harvest time, she would pick beans, raspberries and peas. During her university years, Jenay studied shorthand and earned an Associate’s Degree. After getting married, she worked as a stenographer and later did office work and income taxes for people.

 Jenay met her sweetheart, James Casper Hoffman, in September 1953 while waiting in line in the basement of Old Main on the Utah State campus. It was love at first sight. She later said there was a glowing "aura" about him. Jim later said that at that moment he knew he was going to marry her, but didn't tell her. They started dating, and subsequently were "pinned" (going steady) in a Delta Phi ceremony reported in the local newspaper. Jim proposed to Jenay at the "This is the Place" monument in early April 1954, and they were married in the Logan LDS Temple on May 27, 1954.

 Jim and Jenay’s first son, James, Jr., was born in 1955. Jim served in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps for a few years beginning in July 1955, and the young family spent time in Fort Lee, Virginia, then the Auburn Depot in the state of Washington, where their second son, C. Edward, was born in 1956.

 From 1957 to 1960 they lived in Palo Alto, California while Jim attended law school at Stanford University. After Jim completed law school, Jenay continued raising their children as Jim practiced law for the next 60 years, first in Palo Alto, then in Cupertino, California. During that time, Jim and Jenay had four more children: Paul, Curtis, Jeanette and William, while they lived in the Stanford Village, Menlo Park, and Los Altos Hills during the 1960s. They moved to their home in Cupertino, California in 1972, remaining there for 48 years until August 2020.

 In addition to using her shorthand and bookkeeping skills to assist Jim at his law office, Jenay was the homemaker and the “heart” of their home. She took time to read and tell stories of faith to the children, engaged their minds in stimulating discussions at the dinner table, taught them the value of work and saving money, and was there in so many ways for each individual child’s needs. 

 Jenay actively participated throughout her life in the LDS Church, and served faithfully in various callings, including Ward Librarian, Temple Worker, several positions in the ward Relief Society and Primary organizations, and multiple local missions for the Church. Each of Jenay’s six children have followed her good example of Church dedication by serving full-time missions for the Church and by remaining actively involved in their local congregations. 

 Jenay is remembered fondly by each of her children as a kind and compassionate mother. She was generous to a fault to anyone needing help, taking in relatives or friends who needed a temporary place to live. She loved to cook delicious meals, and often invited others to join the family for dinner, including those recovering from an illness or disease, or down on their luck and needing a warm meal and a hug. She had the ability to make visitors feel like a part of the family, and was a loving friend towards all. She will be dearly missed. 

 Jenay was preceded in death by her husband, James C. Hoffman; her parents, Clarence and Glenna King Austin; her sister Joan (who died in infancy), her brothers David and Richard Austin, her son, James C. Hoffman, Jr. and his wife, Shannon Mann Hoffman; and a granddaughter, Rebecca Hoffman. She is survived by five of her children and their spouses, C. Edward Hoffman (Joy); Paul A. Hoffman (Cindy); Curtis B. Hoffman (Elizabeth); Jeanette L. Fife (Leslie); William M. Hoffman (Cherilyn); 27 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-grandchild. The family is grateful to Jenay’s son, Ed and his wife Joy for their compassionate care for Jenay at her home in St. George for the last four years of her life.

 A viewing will be held on Saturday, March 1st, 2025 at Nelson Funeral Home, 162 E 400 N, Logan, Utah from 10:00 to 10:45 AM. Funeral services will follow at 11:00 AM. Interment at Logan Cemetery.

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