Pleasant Grove High School

Iona Adams (Weyland) - 2/25/2015

Class of 1938

Iona was born 25 January 1917 to William Harrison Adams and Pearl Chamberlain in Pleasant Grove Utah. She was the second of their four children and the oldest of three girls. She grew up in Pleasant Grove where she attended the old Central School through sixth grade. In her early teens she began a struggle with poor health which lasted three years and lead to a prolonged stay in Primary Children’s Hospital for what was termed asthma and a severe rash. Her PCH stay was punctuated further by two hospitalizations at LDS Hospital one for a kidney infection and the other a tonsillectomy. The many prayers that were offered in her behalf were finally answered and good health was restored by the time she turned sixteen. Her rash disappeared and she never again suffered an asthma attack. The only lingering effects were that she had not grown any taller or gained much weight during her convalescence and she was three years behind her peers in her education. Nonetheless, she persevered and graduated from Pleasant Grove High School with honors despite her misfortunes. After High School graduation there was no money for college so she took a job in Salt Lake City as a governess for $5.00 per week with Thursday and Sunday afternoons off.

The Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and locally these work programs brought several men into the lives of Iona and her next oldest sister Gwelda. It was Gwelda and her friends who introduced Iona to Leonard Alvin Weyland a young man from the small farming community of Erda in Tooele County, Utah. Their courtship culminated in marriage in the SLC Temple on 28 March 1940. Initially they made their home in Erda where their first son Dean was born. At the time Leonard was employed at International Smelting and Refining Company in Tooele making $23 per week. Not long after when the Geneva Steel Plant was built just south of Pleasant Grove, Leonard was hired to work in the transportation department and they moved their family to Pleasant Grove. Jackie, Janeen and Leo were born there where all the children were raised until they were on their own.

Leonard died 18 December 1988. For four more years Iona lived in their family home which she remodeled and refurnished to her comfort renting out the pasture and outbuildings. It was no small comfort that her best friend and supportive youngest sister Olive lived nearby enabling the frequent walks they took together. The large property proved more burden than asset for a widow, and never fearing change or being one to tarry, Iona summarily sold her home and property and purchased a senior citizen condominium in Orem, Utah convenient to her association with Olive. When Olive’s husband passed away in 1992, Olive moved to Rose Park in SLC and Iona bought a condominium in Midvale close to her daughter Janeen. In 2000 Janeen moved to Santa Rosa, California and Iona made her final move to the Meadows Retirement Center in St. George, Utah where she has resided since. Her oldest son Dean has been close by and most attentive over the intervening fifteen years. All her other children have assisted as best they could from the distances of their respective homes.

Iona filled numerous callings with the LDS Church including serving in the Relief Society both in Pleasant Grove and St George. She had a great interest in genealogy and the history of her family compiling and writing the life stories of her ancestors and collecting and making copies of photos which were invaluable to the two family history books published in 2012 by her gifted daughter Janeen. Beautiful inside and out Janeen was ever mindful of her family’s every need, especially her mom’s.

Gwelda died following a stroke 7 May 1990 in St George and is buried in Pleasant Grove. On 10 April 2001 Olive died of diabetes and liver failure in SLC and is buried in Pleasant Grove next to her husband Johnny and nearby to brother-in-law Leonard. On 1 June 2002 Iona’s older brother Arthur Dean Adams succumbed to a heart attack and is buried in the Lehi City Cemetery. Sadly Janeen received her post mortal calling 2 September 2013 and is buried in Richfield, Utah. Youngest son Leo left us 10 January 2015 and has a memorial marker in the Riverside, California Cemetery near his girls.

Iona was the last of her generation. While never one to complain, age and the loss of two of her children suffused her with an abiding longing and impatience to join her departed loved ones. Her wish was finally granted when she embraced a peaceful and comfortable passage 25 February 2015 one month to the day beyond her 98th birthday. While we are happy for her, we miss, and always will hereafter, her irrepressible, irreplaceable kind sweet spirit that was such an example to us all.

Preceded in death by husband Leonard Alvin Weyland; brother Arthur Dean Adams & his spouse; sisters Gwelda Stringfield and Olive Isaacson & their spouses; daughter-in-law Helen (Dean) Weyland; daughter Janeen Weyland Stevens; and youngest son Leo Gene Weyland. Survived by oldest son Leonard Dean Weyland (Lorene); son Jack(ie) Alvin Weyland (Jackie); son-in-law Larry P Stevens (Janeen); daughter-in-law Gayle Weyland (Leo); six grandchildren & seventeen great grandchildren.

A Memorial service will be held at 2:00 PM 7 March 2015 in the Olpin Family Mortuary Chapel 494 S 300 E Pleasant Grove, Utah with interment in the Pleasant Grove City Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers the family suggests a contribution to a charity of your choice…and encourages you to make a warm visit to any aging family member who will value your attention beyond your ability to comprehend. A universal lament is that “Nothing worse can happen to you than to outlive all your friends!” Think about it. Honor your seniors while you can.

Condolences may be sent to the family at www.olpinmortuary.com

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