Lois Spencer Barker

On Saturday, July 27, 2024, Lois Spencer Barker, loving wife and mother of four children, passed away peacefully in St George, Utah at age 92, after 5 months on hospice care.

Lois was born on January 5, 1932 in Murray, Utah to Herbert Gealta and LaZella Beck Spencer. Her parents were living in an unfinished home that her dad built with almost no money—no bank loan or mortgage. Lois was their second child, following Herb, who—in her words—was darling and smart, while Lois was bald-headed, shy, and prone to nightmares. Two years after Lois came her brother Don, then a year later twins Ray and Ruth, and 13 years later Richard. Concerned about her shyness, Lois’ parents scrimped to put her in tap dance lessons (at 25 cents/lesson) when she was only 4 years old. At her first recital, the audience gave her a standing ovation and her teacher told her she could go back out and blow a kiss or do the dance again. She chose to do the dance again. The dance lessons eventually helped her get braver, and later in life, people would never describe her as quiet or shy. She also never forgot that first tap dance; she was always happy to demonstrate this.

During World War II, Lois’ family moved to Portland Oregon for 2 years, where her father was able to find work in a shipping yard, before returning to Murray Utah. She was a straight A student and excelled in school. Her most embarrassing memory growing up happened while she was in elementary school, when she was chosen to be in a radio spelling contest and finished in last place. Lois had happy memories from her childhood, playing jacks and hopscotch, roller skating in her clip-on skates in the church parking lot, tap dancing in costumes her mother sewed for her, getting to have a friends birthday party when she turned 9, and floating in the Great Salt Lake and rinsing all the salt off her skin afterwards.

Lois’ jobs in high school were picking raspberries, baby sitting, and working at a soda fountain. She graduated from Murray High School (home of the “Smelterites”) where she was co-editor of the school newsletter, the “Murray-Go-Round.” After graduation, she worked for a year to save up for college doing secretarial work in Salt Lake City for a Lane Cedar Hope Chest Factory representative for 51 cents an hour. A year later she was awarded a partial scholarship and was able to take classes at the University of Utah in the mornings, working afternoons in her secretarial job. She took some piano lessons and modern dance lessons during this time. She graduated from the University of Utah with high honors in 1955 and taught 3rd grade in Murray, Utah and Torrance, California for two years.

On December 28, 1955, she married Robert (Bob) Heaton Barker in the Salt Lake City Temple. They raised four children, Susan, Kevin, Keith, and Karen. She and Bob took their kids on six-week camping trips each summer. She was an avid reader (as many as five books a week), a talented seamstress, a skilled cake decorator, and a talented calligraphist, and she baked bread from scratch with wheat that she ground into flour. She was a wonderful mom (typing papers for kids after midnight, sewing fancy dresses for dances, driving them to many practices and school events) and a good listener. She was devoted to Bob and felt he was the best thing that ever happened to her. She assisted Bob as a secretary and administrative assistant in his Home Tax Service business for 49 years. She and Bob also operated a photo novelty business (putting pictures on mugs, T-shirts, posters, buttons), traveling for several years after their children were raised to fairs around the West and Midwest. During this time, they started wearing matching shirts and continued that tradition thereafter. 

Lois loved dancing, and she and Bob were in a Square Dance group called the Romping Stompers for several years. She sewed all their costumes for square dancing and for dancing in giant dance performances held at the Rose Bowl. Her grandchildren and great- grandchildren love dressing up in her old dance costumes. She also loved playing cards and dominoes with grandkids and on Sunday nights with Bob and brother Ray and sister-in-law Marianne.

Church meant a lot to Lois throughout her life, and she valued her faith and testimony. She served in many church callings, working in Primary, Young Women’s, Relief Society, and scouting; serving as editor of the ward newsletter, a visiting teacher, and a nursery leader; and singing alto in ward choirs. When she was a nursery leader with Bob, they had 29 children under 3 years old in their nursery. Lois and Bob also served for 11 years in the Family History Center, when it wasn't tax season. She also indexed Italian census records and crocheted many leper bandages for church projects.

Lois was preceded in death by her parents Herbert and LaZella and brothers Herb and Don. She is survived by her husband Bob; her four children Susan, Kevin, Keith, and Karen; her brothers Ray and Richard and sister Ruth; and 31 grandchildren and 44 great-grandchildren. 

A memorial service will be held Friday, August 2, 2024 at Spring Gardens Assisted Living, 2654 Red Cliffs Drive, St George, Utah, at 1:00pm. A private graveside service for family members will be held on Monday, August 5, 2024 at the Tonaquint Cemetery in St. George, Utah.