Colleen Dinsdale

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Colleen Knight Dinsdale, our beloved family matriarch whose prodigious musical, writing and dramatic talents blessed so many over her 90 years of life, left us to join the heavenly choir on March 27, 2022. Colleen was born on May 15, 1931, a surprise gift for her parents, Leo and Adleen Farley Knight, who were already well into their forties. From the age of two, she delighted her family with her blossoming gifts, singing, dancing, and reciting, and writing poetry and plays. After first learning to play the piano, she granted her father’s wish that she learn to play his violin, and she quickly became proficient. At Provo High School, she played violin in the orchestra and as a soloist at her graduation ceremony. She excelled in her classes, sang, and acted in plays. Colleen then attended Brigham Young University on scholarships won in music and as the recipient of the Provo Chamber of Commerce Literary Achievement Award.

Colleen met her dear husband, David Dinsdale, while working as a cabin maid at Bryce Canyon in the summer after her first year at BYU. They soon fell in love, and married the following spring on May 21, 1952, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. After their first two children, Jeff and Christine, were born and she was heavily pregnant with a third, Lisa, Colleen proudly completed her BYU education, earning a degree in Speech and Music in 1957. Four more children, Julie, Diane, Maria and Denise, were born in the next 12 years.

At age 49, Colleen returned to school and earned an additional degree in nursing, graduating at the top of her class. For the next ten years, she worked in the maternity and newborn departments at Utah Valley Hospital, which was a perfect assignment for her. Colleen loved babies. As a young girl, she had doted on the babies born to her much older siblings, and she later loved and cared for her own large brood. She had the special gift of almost instantly making any baby coo and smile in response to her sweet attentions.

Colleen cared for her large family with devotion and ingenuity, miraculously stretching Dave’s schoolteacher salary to amply feed and clothe them. She could make a pound of hamburger into a generous meal for nine, but it was her baking skills that were unsurpassed. Bread, dinner rolls, sweet rolls, and pies were her specialties, but anything she baked was wonderful. For many years, she sewed virtually all of the clothing for herself and her children. For months before the Christmas season each year, she would lock herself nightly into the old coal room at the back of the basement after the children were asleep, where she secretly designed and sewed new nightgowns or pajamas for each, which magically appeared on Christmas Eve and were worn excitedly to bed while they dreamed of Santa’s impending arrival.

Colleen’s devotion to her family was matched only by her faith in the Savior and her dedication to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and to service to others. She held a large variety of church positions over her lifetime, always devoting her utmost efforts to every assignment. Together with Dave, she also served a church mission in New Zealand in 1993-1994. Colleen’s musical, poetic, and dramatic gifts shared in her Church and community roles greatly blessed the lives of others. She directed choirs and congregations, and provided accompaniments on the violin, organ and piano. She sang in trios, played violin solos, and played in orchestras for operas and musical productions. She wrote and directed numerous small plays and skits and wrote countless moving tributes and poems for friends and family members. A founding member of the Utah Valley Symphony, she played in it as a violinist for over 50 years until her 80th year. Colleen instilled these many loves and talents in her children, and her legacy now continues in her 28 grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

Colleen is survived by all seven of her children: Jeff Dinsdale (Emily), Springville; Christine Dinsdale (Jay Johnson), Seattle; Lisa Dinsdale, Tigard, Oregon; Julie Smith (Doug), Bountiful; Diane Probst (Brad), Highland; Maria Lewis (Brent), Orem; and Denise Mongie (Stephen), Provo.

We invite you to join us in celebrating Colleen’s life. A viewing will be held from 6-8 pm on April 8, 2022, and from 10-10:45 am on April 9 prior to her 11 am funeral at the Nelson Family Mortuary in Provo. For those unable to attend in person, the funeral will be livestreamed on www.nelsonmortuary.com.