Lynette Neilson Lewis

Lynette Neilson LEWIS, age 74 years, 8 mos., 2 weeks, passed away on 9 June 2023 in Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City. She was born on 25 September 1948 in Escondido, California to Delbert Augustus Neilson and June deWitt. She was raised in Bellflower, California subsequently. She married Terrill James Rush Lewis on 13 September, 1975 in the Los Angeles LDS Temple. Lynette led the usual American suburban life of those times, attending grade school, junior high school, high school, and some community college in Bellflower. After her graduation she worked as a typist for Western Bell Telephone Company for 2 years. An unusually faithful LDS young woman she decided to serve a mission instead of finding a husband. In 1970 she was called by the church to the Belgium, Europe mission and served mostly in the City of Liege for 18 months as was usual for sister missionaries at that time. Her parents picked her up in Europe in 1972 and they returned home together after a brief vacation. Lynette's mother, June, was already ill with breast cancer when they returned. June passed away of that disease that year. Lynette then found work in the Los Angeles LDS Temple and lived in the church apartments on site. Lynette met Terrill Lewis in January of 1975 through the auspices of her friend, Dorothy Heit, who was a member of the Bellflower Ward, and was also the Office Manager of Weacco Engineering in Pico Rivera where Terrill worked. They were engaged in June and married in September of that year. They lived in an apartment in Bellflower for three months and then moved to Upland, CA, in San Bernardino County where Terry had found work at the Chino Basin Municipal Water District (currently the Inland Empire Utility Agency) in Cucamonga. In 1987 they purchased their first house in nearby Devore. Terry then worked at HYA Engineers in Arcadia, Ca. for 2-1/2 years. In 1990, while Lynette stayed in Devore, Terry traveled to Snohomish, Washington seeking employment while living with his sister Nancy's family. After a misstep, Terry found work at INCA Engineers in Bellevue. Lynette sold the Devore house and traveled to him and they lived in an apartment in Mukilteo until they bought a house in Lake Stevens in 1991. In 2014 Terry and Lynette traveled to West Valley City near Salt Lake City to live with and care for his 90-year-old mother Ola Ruth Mobley Rush. Lynette has several serious ilnesses. Her left foot was badly pronated and she had club toes. She often became dehydrated and was hospitalized for the 3 times. Lynette had had trouble with her gall bladder which was removed and her kidneys which developed stones. Her final illness began in December of 2022 and culminated seven moths later with her death of pancreatitis and a perforated bowel, on June 9, 2023. Lynette is survived by her Husband Terrill Lewis (74) of West Valley City, Utah; her brother Douglas Neilson of West Valley City, Utah, and her sister Marilee Neilson Dixon of Tempe, Arizona. Lynette is preceded in death by her mother, June deWitt Neilson (1972) and her father Delbert Augustus Neilson (2011), and her cousin Leslie Fauche Elmer (2021).

Lynette Neilson Lewis

September 25, 1948 - June 9, 2023