This is taken primarily from the personal history of Mary Sibyl Brown.
LIFE SKETCH FOR SIBYL MORTENSEN
Mary Sibyl Mortensen leaves a legacy of family and a life filled with the gospel of Jesus Christ. No one will say she accomplished grand things, wrote poems or created works of lasting earthly value, but the story of her life shows that she lived the gospel to the fullest and loved her family. She never spoke ill of another person and served the Lord all the days of her life, working in the temple until she was called back to the presence of Heavenly father and to join her husband, Harris Mortensen.
Sibyl Mortensen was born on August 11, 1929 to Joseph L. Brown and Mary Toone in Grantsville Utah in their home. Her maiden name was Mary Sibyl Brown, but she always went by the name of Sibyl because her Mother’s name was Mary. She was the 8th child of nine children, four boys and five girls.
Her earliest memories were of her father who died of Cancer when she was five, March 17, 1935. One particular incident was of her father sitting on the steps of the granary with his two dogs Muff and Rex while Sibyl was playing on the storage cellar steps. Her father quickly pulled her aside, grabbed an ax and killed a rattle snake on the cellar steps.
Before his death, her father thought he had thought he left her mother well taken care of, with the farm, ranch, and stock in the Grantsville bank. However during the depression, all this was lost. As a result, Sibyl’s mother had to work. Her Mother was very proud and would not take welfare without working for it so she went to work on the projects. Sibyl and her sister were tended by Mama Lawrence who took them to school the first day. She was the only one there that didn't have a parent with her - and possibly was a reason She started out rather slow in school and didn't think she was very smart . The depression influenced her greatly. She was always very frugal and didn’t like to spend much money. She saved everything for that rainy day , in fact when Harris died and Marcia helped clean her house, she found hundreds of empty bottles, cottage cheese containers and TV dinner trays ready for the hundreds of home made TV dinners that she never got around to making as well as 40 year old food storage cans of wheat .
You would never know it now, but she was a tom boy as a child and road horses from the time she could walk. She loved her horse Boots. During the depression she took the cows to the pasture for a neighbor and earned $1.50 per month. One day she jumped up on a horse, her dress blew and scared the horse and he ran away sliding on the oil road into the gravel with her leg pinned under him. The injury was so severe, that the doctor thought she would loose her leg, then later, would never walk without a limp. Throughout her life she was fairly healthy, except for her legs.
She came from a musical family and never really felt she was very talented . She always wanted her children to have musical talent, but only Gena came through with flying colors -.It wasn't until she was older that she came to realize that her ability to love and show kindness to others was a talent.
After graduating from East High School in 1947 she had two goals. One was to go to college and the other was to go on a mission. Back then, girls couldn’t go on missions until they were 23. In addition, she didn’t have any money for a mission. She didn’t have the money or clothes, but somehow, the Lord blessed her and she was able to finish both a Mission and College during which time she got married and had three babies, the third, Gena, which was born a couple of weeks before graduation.
During her mission, she struggled with the same questions that everyone struggles with. She wrote in her history:
“I remember the time I came home from a cottage meeting and said to myself, "What if it isn't true. What if these people are changing their lives because of me and it isn't true." I got down on my knees and began to pray for a surety. I needed to know for myself. I had thought I had a testimony when I came on my mission. But now I had to know. The answer did not come right away. I then began to fast and pray. This was the most important question I had ever asked and I knew the answer would come sooner of later. Then while I was reading in the Book of Mormon, the wonderful sensation came over me. I knew without a doubt that what I was reading was true. No man could know things that were in that book, the things I was reading in 2 Nephi. I knew if the Book of Mormon was true the Church was true. It is hard to explain how I felt, glorious. I wanted to stand up and shout. “
From that time on she was a better missionary because she knew that it was the Lord who was changing people's lives .
In May of 1957 Harris was offered a job at Boeing so they moved to the Seattle Area. They had two more children making a total of 5, Marcia, Kurt, Gena, MaryJo and Kay. when they first moved to Seattle there was no chapel so they met in the Lions club. Sometimes they had to go early before church and clean up the beer bottles so they could hold church. Later they helped build the first Seattle Stake Center, were there to witness the building of the temple and divisions of Wards and Stakes.
When Harris was made Stake President of the Renton stake, he was set apart by Thomas S. Monson. They had the privilege of having apostles stay in their home such as Mark E. Peterson, Bruce R. McConkie, Elder LeGrand Richards and Elder James E Faust.
Sibyl and Harris were extended calls to be temple workers in 1980. Harris was also called as Stake Patriarch, a calling that brought great spirituality into their home. In March of 1986 Harris was diagnosed with a brain tumor. A hard but spiritual year followed. He died on April 20, 1987. While his story is elsewhere, their lives are one and one cannot talk about Sibyl without talking about Harris. She never once wanted to remarry any of the 23 years she lived without him.
In July of 1990, she went on a Mission and upon return started working in the temple two days a week and also an additional day in the local family History center. In 2002 she returned back to Utah when Kim and Marcia moved to Mexico. In Utah, she once again worked in the temple. Without a doubt, the 30 years she worked in the temple kept her motivated, healthy and was the reason to get up in the morning. She loved her callings working in literally every position. I think the only calling she never liked was in the library, but only because she had to stand so much. In the last few years, while standing on her feet has been a challenge, she has continued working in the temple. She died just the way she wanted to die: quickly and without a regret while she was still healthy. When Harris was close to death, he gave her a blessing which she recorded. . He said, “Let us remember the blessings that we have and let us not be discouraged but rather let us look to Thee for a blessing of health.. Take care of you body. I bless you that your body, even though it may be tired and even though it may pain a little, the Lord will come to you. Trust in Him in the wee hours of he night. That is the way the Savior taught you. Trust in these things. Do not be discouraged. Remember there are friends to help. There are opportunities before you. Use all your opportunities to help your friends, our husband, your family and your loved ones.”
She left 5 children, 2 siblings, Gail and Vern and 14 grand children and 7 ½ Great Grandchildren. This is Her legacy and we will all miss her very much.
Even though this blog is supposed to be all about Harris and Sibyl Mortensen, I wanted to try and sneak in a picture of Kurt's Grandchild, Riley Mary Koyle and tie it to a memory of Grandma Sibyl. She had this tree (as seen in the pictures below with Amy, Kellan, Jenifer and Eli) that was beautifully color coordinated and pink. The tree itself was white and all of the ornaments on the tree had to be pink and even the Christmas tree skirt and lights were pink. Many of the ornaments were made by her daughter, Marsha, except for the one on Riley's tummy. Jenifer made this ornament and used to always tease her because the tree wasn't in the traditional Christmas colors of red and green. This year, I will hang this ornament on my tree and think of Grandma Sibyl.
