Obituary for Clarence Leavitt Grover On the evening of Wednesday, September 5, 2018, Clarence Leavitt Grover passed away in the Spokane Providence Sacred Heart Hospital due to complications of a stroke that occurred just two days before on Monday. Leavitt was 90 years old. Born on October 7, 1927, he was strong and healthy up to the time of the stroke, even having recently walked five miles in Yellowstone National Park to see favorite sites from his youth in June.
Leavitt was born in Bybee, Idaho (close to the town of Rigby), as the second child, and oldest son of Clarence and Cleah Leavitt Grover. His father was an active Scout leader and his mother a gifted musician. Leavitt joined the Marines in 1946 right out of high school, and marched as a trumpet player with the Marine band at El Toro Marine Air Base.
In 1948, he was called to serve a two-year mission in the Northwestern States Mission, laboring in Eastern Washington and western Oregon, which was his first introduction to the two states that would become his home later in life. While on leave from the Marines, he met and was a dance partner with Anna Cox for a floor show. They married in December of 1950 when they had both returned home from their missions.
Anna even bought a train ticket for the wedding cake that accompanied her home for that event. In Idaho, Leavitt worked as a chemist at General Electric and Aero Jet General, while at the same time being self-employed as a farmer in Hamer, Idaho. The family moved to Pasco, Washington in 1966, where Leavitt worked as an irrigation specialist and farm manager.
In 1971, the family moved to Hermiston, Oregon, to develop a huge farm named SunBest Cooperation. By 1974, Leavitt researched and acquired orchard lands on the outskirts of Kennewick, which is still well-known for apples and cherries, and resided there until his death. After the death of Anna in 1983, Leavitt met and then married Annette Zollinger in December of 1983.
They together served three missions for the church: Wellington, New Zealand, beginning in September 1991, where Leavitt and Annette strengthened church members living there and Leavitt “just happened” to visit the grower who discovered the Gala apple who lived in New Zealand; Suva, Fiji, starting in April of 1995, where he leveled land to grow crops, built a greenhouse, and instructed youth in farming; and Apia, Samoa, starting in August of 2000, where Annette worked in the schools and Leavitt instructed young farmers. After returning home from all of these missions, Leavitt and Annette continued to serve in various positions in the church, and Leavitt decided to finish the bachelor degree at BYU which he had begun over 50 years earlier. He graduated in music from BYU, as the oldest student of his year, at age 77 in 2005.
Leavitt is preceded in death by his first wife, Anna; his sister, Beth (Grover) Chandler; and his brother, Tom Grover. He is survived by his two children: Sharla (Grover) Dance and Doug Grover; his nine grandchildren: Justin (Becca) Grover, Rachel (Nathan) Perry, Logan Grover, Ashton (Cassie) Grover, Jeanna Dance, Joshua Dance, Ryan (Katie) Dance, Jeremy (Natalie) Dance, and Kaeli Dance; and 10 great-grandchildren: Maya Grover, Sydney Grover, Ella Grover, Tyler Grover, Harmon Perry, Charlee Perry, Kate Perry, Lexi Perry, Dax Dance, and Jackson Dance. The viewing will be at 9:30 a.m. on September 28, 2018, at the Olympia LDS building, 4415 S. Olympia St. in Kennewick, with the funeral following afterward at 11:00.
Interment will be immediately following the funeral at the Desert Lawn Memorial Cemetery. Leavitt had a can-do attitude that was hard to match. He could imagine anything, build anything, and fix everything else.
We remember his ready smile, his laugh, his down to earth attitude and his farmer-tough strength. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Clarence Leavitt Grover please visit our Sympathy Store. Upcoming Events Funeral Service , SEP 28.
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