Rhea Hart Grandy

Rhea Hart Grandy, 99, passed away on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, at Legacy House in Logan, Utah. She was born November 25, 1914, to Arthur William Hart and Ada Doney Lowe Hart in Preston, Idaho. Rhea was raised in a large family of twelve brothers and eight sisters in Preston. Her childhood was happy, and she loved playing in the apple orchard and swimming in the Bear River with her many siblings. After graduating from Preston High School in 1932, she attended USAC Utah State Agricultural College in Logan for one year. In 1933, Rhea entered the School of Nursing at the William Budge Memorial Hospital in Logan. While in training, she met her husband, Wallace Grandy, from Paris, Idaho, who was attending the USAC. She had a year of Nurse's training left when Wallace graduated on June 1, 1935; and he left to serve a mission to the Southern States that fall. Rhea graduated from nursing school in September of 1936 and was the valedictorian of her class. In November, she successfully passed the Utah State board exams placing fourth highest in the state and received her R.N. Certificate. She worked at the Budge Clinic in Logan for a year and then moved to Salt Lake City to work at the LDS Hospital. She had been there three months when Wallace returned from his mission on Thanksgiving Day, 1937. Several weeks later they became engaged and were married December 23, 1938, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. Their first home was in Orderville, Utah, where Wallace taught school for three years. His profession as a teacher and later Seminary teacher/principal took them to Goshen, Randolph, and Laketown, Utah; Afton, Wyoming; Paris, Idaho; and then to Smithfield, Utah. While living in these various places, Rhea had the opportunity to use her nursing skills and was often called into homes to help out in times of illness. Her love of nursing grew into a great compassion for serving others. In 1959, while living in Smithfield, Rhea returned to her nursing career and worked part time for 17 years at the Logan LDS Hospital in obstetrics Labor, Delivery, and the Nursery. She loved helping deliver and taking care of countless newborn babies. After Rhea retired in 1976, she and Wallace took care of their grandson, David Burton, who contracted meningitis when he was three months old and was left with brain damage. They cared for David until he was ten years old. Then when it became too difficult for them to care for him any longer, he was moved to the American Fork Training School. Rhea has been an active member of the LDS Church all her life, serving faithfully in many callings, and especially loved to sing in ward choirs and the Singing Mothers. She was an avid genealogist, attended the Temple regularly, and worked in the LDS Family Search Extraction Program. She was a talented composer of poetry, stories, and songs, and wrote songs for each of her children and grandchildren. Wallace passed away 24 years ago on November 4, 1989, and Rhea was able to live in her own home in Smithfield until moving to Pioneer Valley Lodge in August 2010 and to Legacy House in December 2012. She was preceded in death by her husband Wallace, daughter Luane, and son Melvin. She is survived by her four children: Boyd Candy of California; Marcile Loran Hirschi of Logan; Gayla Daryl Reese of Hyde Park; Teresa Minnick of Layton; and son-in-law, Alma Burton. She has thirteen grandchildren and thirty five great-grandchildren. She is survived by five siblings, Arlette Day, Jocelyn Frank Faux, Ada Shumway, Jed Hart, and Bret Rene Hart. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013, at the original Smithfield Second Ward building, 175 South 100 West, Smithfield, Utah. A viewing will be held on Friday evening from 6-8 p.m. at the Nelson Funeral Home in Smithfield, 85 South Main Street, and prior to services on Saturday from 9:30-10:30 a.m. at the church. Interment will be at the Paris, Idaho Cemetery at 3:30 p.m. Condolences may be expressed online at www.nelsonfuneralhome.com