Lois H. Soper Berkstresser Obituary (1918 - 2016)

Lois Hallie Schmid Soper, died peacefully on December 24, 2016, at Country Lane Assisted Living in Sandy, Utah. She was born May 28, 1918, in Montpelier, Idaho, to Charles August Schmid and Martha Jubilee Dewey Schmid. She had one older sister, Enid Beverly Schmid, who died in infancy. She also had a younger sister, Carol Schmid Wahlstrom, who preceded her in death. Lois graduated from Montpelier High School in 1936. She then attended Link's Business College in Pocatello, Idaho. Shortly thereafter she was called by the LDS Church to be a missionary in the New England Mission from November 1939 thru May 1941. Her mission president was Elder Levi Edgar Young. One of the beautiful blessings from her mission was that she met her future husband and eternal companion, our dad, Gordon Henry Soper. Lois married Gordon in Salt Lake City on October 25, 1941. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple. At various times she worked as a soda jerk, telephone operator, Ironrite mangle instructor, grocery store food demonstrator, title company researcher, and medical secretary. "Home" meant several different locations during her life. These included: Montpelier, Idaho; Virginia; Salt Lake City, Utah; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; West Babylon, New York; Dallas, Texas; Fullerton, California; and then back to Salt Lake City. Mom had many favorites in her sojourn in life. A few would be: being dad's wife and our mother, having fun, looking on the bright side of life, DANCING, steak dinners at the cabin, being with family and friends, ice skating on the ponds around Montpelier, stylish dressing, Bear Lake, being the very best homemaker and cook, strawberry rhubarb pie, jewelry, dutch oven dinners or early morning breakfasts up the canyon, gardening, Maui, making our favorite delicious spaghetti sauce, playing bridge and canasta (and rummy cube with the kids), hamburgers with lots of onions, traveling the world, showing love and kindness, Kentucky Fried Chicken, shopping for bargains at thrift stores, hosting or going to parties, leopard print, making her home-made buttermilk pancakes, blue skies and warm weather, diet coke, feeding the birds, counting her blessings, loving her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. The list would not be complete without mentioning her bright red lipstick and beautifully red-manicured nails. Oh, and did we mention DANCING?! Lois was affectionately nicknamed "Lady" at a very young age by her father. That name has proven to be true and amazingly accurate all her life. Mom has loved and taught us well throughout her life. At times when life gave her lemons, she made the sweetest lemonade possible. Mom, we often heard you say, "I am so blessed." We have been "so blessed" to have you in our lives. Mom noticed the beautifully simple details of every day. A day that was warm and sunny with a clear blue sky was her favorite kind of day. We would often hear her burst out singing "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" as we were driving around town. She noticed the beauty of the mountains and the blooming trees in the spring and as the leaves changed colors in the fall, she would often talk of the cold that was coming…she did not like the cold and could sense it in her bones. She had the cutest word to describe a day that was grey and overcast. That day was called 'a nugly day'. She was a summer girl at heart and loved to be anywhere in the sunshine. Mom loved jewelry. She had quite a mixture of both expensive and less expensive costume jewelry. She loved rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces and the more the better. Her fingers and wrists were always adorned with multiple rings and bracelets and she would often say she felt naked if she had to go out without her earrings or her red lipstick on. Her red lipstick, beautifully red manicured nails and being 'dressed to the nines' added to her class as a true lady. Along with increasing her own testimony of the Book of Mormon and the gospel of Jesus Christ and helping others know of its truthfulness, mom was able to meet her eternal companion while faithfully serving the Lord in the New England Mission. Her temple marriage to Gordon Soper was the richest blessing she received from serving a mission. Gordon was her true love, her Prince Charming and her whole world. Mom's gold-speckled green eyes were the window to her soul. She could look at you and you knew you were loved through and through. Those eyes held a lot of heartache and trials through the years with lots of joy and happiness in between and yet she never once complained. She would always say how blessed she was and the only thing to do was to move forward and love. She beautifully taught us all to have 'faith, hope and charity' by her daily example. Mom had grit and a grateful heart and I think that's what kept her going for so long. In the last few months of her life she would often talk about going to Montpelier to see mother and dad. She would talk of her memories of the shop and visiting dad there and getting a little extra spending money from dad. She would often ask us to take her back to Montpelier so she could get money from dad. These sweet memories often brought tears to her eyes. In the last few months we could sense how much she missed them and how she longed to be with them again. In the way mom lived her beautiful life, she epitomized the 13th Article of Faith: 'We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.' This is her. Mom couldn't walk down the halls of The Coventry without reaching out to everyone she passed. She would pat their arm, look them in the eye and ask them how they were doing. She sought after people and loved them deeply. Her heart was filled with love for those around her. We are grateful to know that she has been reunited with her dear husband and eternal companion, Gordon, who has been waiting for her for 47 earthly years. This long separation has not been easy but she always looked forward with the attitude of being so blessed. What a tender mercy that she was "home for Christmas." For the past 14 years, Lois has lived close to most of her family and extended family while at The Coventry Independant Living residence in Salt Lake City, Utah. Throughout the years other family members have visited her from out-of-state to enjoy her love and affection. After Gordon's untimely passing in January 1970, Lois met and married Albert O. Bedard in August 1971. They traveled extensively to many exotic locations throughout the world. Albert passed away on August 15, 1995. Then, Lois married Forney Berkstresser in July 1996. He passed away on November 24, 2008. Lois and Gordon are the parents of three children, Gordon Charles Soper (Dixie), Nyle Richard Soper (Sally), and Lois Ann Nichol (Ross). They have 13 grandchildren and six step-grandchildren: Aaron, Richard, Russell, and Nathan; Cynthia, Heather, Amy, Michael, and Tiffany; Stephanie, Steven, Whitney, and David; Jeffrey, Jennifer, Janae, Julie, Jill, and Joelynn. They have 23 great-grandchildren and six step-great-grandchildren: Brandi, Brenda, Timmy, Starr, Amber, Ryan, Madison, Jason, Jesse, Conner, Colin, Sebastian, Mckenna, Ashlyn, Colter, Wyatt, Jacob, Lily, Kali, Isaac, Tanner, Ethan, William (deceased); Chase, Nichole, Brandon, Macyn, Andrew, and Ethaniel. They also have three great-great-grandchildren and three step-great-great grandchildren: Jeremiah, Nickoliah, Aurora; Alana, Nathan, and Ian. She is also survived by her nephew John Wahlstrom, who considered her "Mom" since the death of his own mother. The graveside service was presided over by her grandson Bishop Steven Nichol in the Montpelier, Idaho, city cemetery at 1:00 pm, Thursday, December 29th, 2016. The opening prayer was given by Russell Phillips, after which many family members shared emotionally tender recollections. The grave dedication prayer was offered by her son, Nyle Soper, and the closing prayer was given by her oldest son, Gordon Charles Soper. We were blessed to have a beautiful, bright sunny day at the cemetery overlooking the peaceful Montpelier valley. How blessed we have been to have loved our mother and grandmother and to have been truly loved by her. What a gift of love she has left with each of us. We will miss her smiling eyes, her easy laugh, the touch of her beautiful hands and the way she would look straight into our eyes and even hold our chin in her hands, so she knew we were really listening, and tell us how much she loved us and then ask us over and over if we really knew how much she loved us. She never let a day go by without expressing her love and appreciation to us. Just as she would always call us her angels, she is now our angel. Mom, we love you and will miss you dearly. If you look closely, you can see a beautiful angel dancing her way through Heaven. Dance away mom! Please visit her FamilySearch.org pages for photos, etc. Funeral Home: Jenkins-Soffe Mortuary-Murray 4760 South State Street Murray, UT 84107