Lenore Bennion

(From Clark Funeral Home)

Lenore Wood Bennion, 84, Stark City, Missouri, died Thursday, March 5, 2015 at her home.

She was born June 28, 1930 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Joseph Earl and Zina Lenore Cannon Wood. Lenore’s early years were spent living in or near construction camps in Northern California where her father worked as a civil engineer. About, 1938, her parents bought a home in Berkley, California. In 1948, Lenore enrolled by BYU, where she met and married Owen Cannon Bennion on August 30, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah. They then began homesteading and cattle ranching at Green Jacket, the family farm, south and west of Vernon, Utah. Owen returned to BYU and graduated in 1955. He started teaching at Lincoln Jr. High and the family bought a home in North Orem, Utah. In the spring of 1960, they moved to South Orem and lived there until 1984, when they moved to Stark City, Missouri. 

Lenore is survived by 12 children: Sons, Joseph and Lee Bennion, Spring City, UT; Glynn and Jodi Bennion, Stark City, MO; Howard and Holly Bennion, Fairfield, CA; Samuel and Miyuki Bennion, Stark City, MO and Jonathan and Clara Bennion, Camdenton, MO; daughters, Katherine and Dennis Pincock, West Valley City, UT; Anne and Darrell Hansen, Granby, MO; Jeanne and Brad Mitchell, Perry, OK; Mary Lois and Jonathan Snow, Pleasant Grove, UT; Eileen and John Bingner, Hillsborough, OR; Lillian and Doug Nehring, Wildwood, MO and Lucy and Bryan Byrd, Stark City, MO; one brother, Arthur Q. and Virginia Wood; a brother and sister in law, George and Joye Bennion and a sister in law, Francine Bennion and a brother in law, Richard Nelson; 152 grandchildren and great grandchildren. Lenore is preceded in death by her husband, Owen Cannon Bennion; two sisters, Anne Ream and Enid Nelson; a brother, Joseph Wood; a son, Matthew Wood Bennion and granddaughter, Josephine Elizabeth Bennion. 

Lenore was a lifetime member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and served as a Relief Society President, counselor in a Primary Presidency, Gospel Doctrine teacher, Relief Society teacher and a Visiting teacher. She also served in the Scouting organization as a Den Mother and Webelos Leader, earning her Wood Badge and Silver Beaver Awards. She taught school for 13 years, until she reached the age of 73, at Triway Elementary in Stella, Missouri. After she retired, she did genealogical indexing for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She was also involved in the local history of Newton County, Missouri and helped clean up and map the Old Civil War Cemetery in Newtonia, Newton County, Missouri. She joined the Newtonia Battlefield Quilters Guild and was an active member up until about a year before her death. But best of all, were the Christmas ornaments she made for ALL of her 152 grandchildren and great grandchildren, starting in 1978. This was something that all the little ones looked forward to every Christmas. Lenore never served a traditional LDS mission, but wherever she went, she performed Christ like service to those around her whether with her classroom students, the quilt guild or people she met. As John Wesley recorded in his journal quoting Lenore’s 5th great grandmother, Martha Wood, in August, 1775, ‘You can never do too much for God: When you have done all you can you have done too little. O, who that knows Him, can love, or do, or suffer too much for Him!’. This could also be said of Lenore Wood Bennion.

CHURCH SERVICE
Friday March 13, 2015, 10;00 - AM at LDS, Granby Ward