Ida Marie Mayo Rooks Johnson died Sunday, April 10, 2022, at her daughter’s home in West Jordan, Utah. “Marie” was born March 14, 1937, in Tampa, Florida. Her parents were Robert Elizabeth Reader Rooks and Franklin Jesse Rooks. She was raised with an older sister, named Flossy. Marie was raised as a southern belle and taught southern ways. She graduated from High School and briefly attended college. At the age of 19, she was called to a local mission on Florida. In 1958, she met Lieutenant John Hal Johnson serving with the U.S. Air Force in nearby Coco Beach, who swept her off her feet. She married him three months later for time and all eternity in the Manti, Utah Temple.

Both strong in their faith, their union produced four children and many, many happy years, living productively on their family’s farm in Benjamin, Utah.

Marie loved quilting, sewing, crocheting, taking care of her family, and, in later years, genealogy. She avidly traced her own family tree back hundreds of years and tried to assist and teach others to do the same as often as possible. She also loved preserving many of the interesting vegetables and fruits that her husband, a BYU professor of Food Science and Nutrition and avid farmer, grew on their land. She and Hal taught their daughters and many other people how to can and preserve food, as well as teaching their sons how to grow the things they all enjoyed.

She loved sharing the gospel. Marie was proud that her forebears had helped the church get its start in the Southeast, providing leadership, support and guidance as the area membership expanded in the bible belt. Asked a few years ago whether her testimony had ever wavered, she said no, she had always known the Church was true. She was firm in her belief, and never doubting, she served not one, but four missions for the Church, including the one in her youth in Jacksonville, FL, followed by two church service missions to Cambodia and one to Syria (followed by Croatia) with her husband.

After nearly 56 years of marriage, Marie was preceded in death by her husband in 2014, and lost a son, Jesse Hal Johnson, to a farming accident in 1979. She is survived by daughter Maryan (Bryce) Peterson, Marti Johnson, and Joel (Marie) Johnson, as well as twelve grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren.

The Johnson family offers its gratitude to all who have been supportive of our sweet mother in her later years. She had friends stopping by; loved ones reaching out by phone, email and letters; and the full support of the Bishop and Relief Society in her home ward of Benjamin. For these and other kindnesses, great and small, we offer our deepest appreciation and gratitude.

The viewing will be at the Benjamin meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3238 West 7300 South, Benjamin, Utah, on Friday, April 15, starting at 9:30am, with the funeral beginning at 11am. Interment will be immediately after at the Benjamin Cemetery.