Luceil Heuer

After a lifetime of love, faith, and unwavering devotion to her family, our dear mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend, Norma Luceil Nelson Heuer, age 87, left us suddenly on September 4, 2024 at her home in Saratoga Springs, Utah. She was joyfully welcomed to the world on March 31, 1937 by her mother, Dorothy Deseret Cummins Nelson, her father, and her beloved four-year-old brother Andrew Lenn Nelson in Oakley, Idaho. 

Eventually four more cherished girls joined the family—Velta, Loah, Linda, and Lori. Luceil’s childhood was marked by the last years of the Great Depression and then World War II with all of the accompanying trials her generation endured. She grew up on a farm in Oakley where, even though they were quite poor, they all made the most of what they had, learned the value of hard work and persistence, and, most important of all, loved each other immensely.

Music was an enduring thread woven throughout the fabric of her life. Luceil’s mother, Dorothy, made their many farm chores more pleasant by singing songs with them. At the end of her life, Luceil could often be found singing those very songs to her great-grandchildren. 

Luceil wanted to play the piano so much, she drew a keyboard on a piece of cardboard so she could practice. Dorothy bought an old upright piano for $20, and the family spent many hours together singing along and dancing. 

Luceil had an engineering-type mind and was the Salutatorian of her high school graduating class in Gooding, Idaho. She then attended Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, where she received an Associate’s degree in Accounting, proving to a naysayer that women really could be accountants. Surely she was ahead of her time and might have even been the first college graduate in her family.

She was working in customer service at a telephone company saving money to continue her education when she met a “handsome and charming” man who was there on a temporary assignment changing equipment. She married that man, James Bruce Heuer—her one true love—in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 17, 1958. They had two sons, Michael James and Jeffrey Bruce. 

Jim and Luceil raised their family in Southern California, and in later years they moved a few time for Jim’s work. They lived in Atlanta, Georgia; Evansville, Indiana; Dallas, Texas; Rupert, Idaho; and finally settled into retirement in St. George, Utah. Luceil worked at times for an engineering company, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in social services, and she handled the administrative side of their company, Companion Products Incorporated, a mail order fulfullment company for barbeque accessories.

One of Luceil’s defining characteristics was her great faith in and strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She was a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and she was always—even just days before her death—serving others. She had many callings throughout the years, including Primary president, Stake Primary president, Relief Society president, Family History Consultant, and Relief Society pianist. She and Jim also served a mission together at Cove Fort, Utah, giving tours of the historic site. However, her favorite calling was as organist in the St. George temple, a service she faithfully performed for at least a decade. Her great faith and continuous Christlike service is an enduring legacy and example for her descendants.

After Jim died, Luceil made her home in Saratoga Springs, Utah, with her youngest son and his wife. It was a warm and welcoming home, decorated with her family pictures and filled with her handmade quilts. She loved flowers of all kinds and grew many different kinds in her younger years. She brought hollyhock seeds with her when she moved up from St. George and planted them at the base of the wall on the golf course. They have thrived and spread—even to the neighbors’. Luceil often played hymns on her grand piano, and, when her sister Linda was visiting, she would sit and listen each night as Linda played. She also made beautiful quilts—sometimes with help from her sisters Velta and Lori--which she gave as gifts to her descendants and others. 

Luceil’s talent for mathematics was reflected in her love of puzzles. She had two tables dedicated to puzzles in her home. She also worked many, many word-find puzzles. She loved to sit in her kitchen chair, gazing out at the lake while doing her word puzzles and reading her scriptures or church magazines. But the thing she loved the most during her later years was her great-grandbabies. Even a short visit gave her great joy as she cooked with them, played little games with them, and sang them the songs her mother sang to her.

Luceil is survived by three sisters, Velta Moe, Linda Stevenson, and Lori Nelson; her sons, Michael and Jeffrey; their wives Brigitte and Robin; eleven grandchildren; and 19 great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her sons-of-the-heart, Jim’s sons from his first marriage, David Heuer (Cassandra) and Scott Bryant (Patty); and their six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren for a grand total of seventeen grandchildren and twenty-six great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her adored husband, her beloved only brother, her dear mama and much-loved stepfather, Harold Avery Peterson, her darling sister Loah Krahn, and many, many other loved ones and friends. How she missed them all! Her family will dearly miss her but take comfort from knowing that she is reunited with all of the people she so loved. They also find peace in the sure knowledge that they will see her again.

Luceil will be interred beside her sweetheart at the Minidoka Acequia Rupert Cemetery in Rupert, Idaho.