Donna Pexton

Obituary for
Donna Mae Pexton (Kizerian)

Donna Mae Kizerian Pexton was born on May 10th, 1933, in the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her father, Karlos, and her mother, Rose, had prepared a very special home for her growing years. It was full of the sweet, simple love of Christ, along with three brothers, two sisters, and a focus on living and teaching Gospel principles everyday. She had a very special heritage through her Armenian ancestry and successfully instilled the faith of her convert ancestors in her children.

Donna’s father had a beautiful orchard on the east bench of Salt Lake City, as well as ample ground around the home to plant a vegetable garden, raise a cow and some chickens and keep bees. Her parents loved the soil, so Donna grew up in a yard full of beautiful flowers and trees and she created similarly beautiful spaces everywhere she lived. Walking through Mama Donna’s garden with her and eating fresh snap peas, raspberries and strawberries was always a treat.

Through the living example of her parents, Donna blossomed into a flower more beautiful than any in her father’s garden. She grew in the Gospel with the simple faith of a child. Satan passed her by because he was no match for her beautiful spirit. Her life reflects her care, concern and love for people. To all who have known her, particularly, Dick and the children, it is clear that Donna is unique among God’s creations.

Donna graduated from Granite High School and attended Brigham Young University until she met Dick who married her in the Salt Lake Temple on August 31, 1953. Dick took her to Olympia, Washington to play army during the Korean war. Life after that was lived fully in Utah, Colorado, California, back to Colorado and ended in Lehi, Utah on August 19th , 2018.

Dick and Donna would have celebrated their 65th anniversary in just 12 days. They are the parents of 8 children: Cherice (Don Steinhour), Gordon Richard (who died as an infant), Joett (Jeff Hill), Norman Scott (Beverly Fuller), Starlene (Blake Willardsen), John Milton (Stacey Keck), William Chad (Michelle Krieger), and Jeremy Michael (Jullian Webb). They have been blessed with 31 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren.

The gift of Charity, or the pure love of Christ, was manifest in the purposeful way Donna lived every day. From daily love notes, carefully written and placed in handmade lunches, to flower bouquets delivered to granddaughters and friends, Donna’s gift was to make others feel loved. Through handmade valentines and Christmas ornaments, or a birthday pie if you didn’t like cake, every kind deed or act of service, was a gift from the heart and a window into the gentle, kind nature of Donna’s soul.

In addition to serving as a loving wife and mother, Donna also served as a Primary President, a counselor in Young Women, as Ward and Stake Relief Society President in California and Colorado, and a loving friend to many. She and Dick served two church service missions, 4 ½ years as hosts at the new conference center and 1 ½ years at the Family History Training Center in Orem, Utah. Perhaps the service she loved most was 9 years of getting up at 3 a.m. for her 5 a.m. session as a Tuesday morning ordinance worker in the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple. She is loved by her Heavenly Father, her Savior, her parents, her in-laws, her husband, and all who knew her.

Her children, like Nephi, can lovingly state: “I ___________, having been born of a goodly mother...” While the world is less beautiful without Donna in it, her legacy of love and service temper our sadness at her passing and give us reason to celebrate an exemplary life.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, August 25th at 10am in Lehi, UT at the LDS Chapel on 220 West 200 South, Lehi, UT 84043. Two viewings will be held at the same location. The first on Friday night, August 24th, from 6-8 pm. The second, preceding the funeral, from 9 to 9:40 am. Donna’s interment will take place at the Salt Lake City Cemetery after the funeral.