George Jay Kershaw, loving husband, father, grandfather and devoted disciple of the Lord, passed away November 17, 2018 at the age of 87. Born September 28, 1931, in Bybee, Idaho (near modern-day Rigby) in a two-room, log home with no running water and no electricity, he spent his life with dirt under his fingernails and love on his countenance. His youth was filled with hard work, milking cows and laboring alongside his father and brother on the family’s 78-acre farm of potatoes, grain and hay.
George preferred to run the horse-drawn tractor the family purchased five years before he left home and was skilled driving a team of four. His love of farming would be a constant throughout his life as he always had a large garden filled with a variety of produce he loved to share with family and neighbors. He graduated from Midway High School, where he played the trumpet in the pep band before retiring to turn his attention to graduating from seminary his senior year.
He attended Ricks College, hitchhiking home each weekend to help on the farm. He also joined the ROTC at Utah State University. When the missionary age was dropped from 20 to 19, he suddenly found himself eligible to serve as a full-time missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which he did from 1951-53 in the California Mission.
After months of tireless but fruitless work, he baptized 15 people in the final two months of his mission. His most important contact came while serving in North Hollywood and Studio City, where he was assigned to work with Elder Arland Larsen. During their companionship George met and began corresponding with his companion’s younger sister, Norene.
He once sent her a jar of California sunshine, purchased her wedding ring while in the mission field and proposed the day he was released. Shortly after the conclusion of his service, George and Norene were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on March 25, 1953. The farm boy and city girl were a perfect match and determined to build a celestial marriage.
The couple raised five children while living in Brigham City, where he played an important role in raising money and building a chapel, and eventually in Kaysville, where he served as Bishop of the Kaysville 8th Ward from 1977-81. He remembered that time as “the most rewarding and toughest job,” he ever had in the church. He and Norene also served as ordinance workers in the Ogden Temple, where they served for over seven years.
He was delighted to see all of his children sealed in the temple, that all three of his daughters served as Relief Society presidents and that both of his sons served missions and were ordained as bishops. He made great effort to attend every baptism, ordination, temple endowment, mission farewell, homecoming, and wedding for his 19 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren. Professionally, he worked in data processing before joining Thiokol, where he worked for nearly a decade in early computer programming.
He worked at McKay-Dee Hospital and for the Church. After some late-career challenges, he became fond of saying, with his trademark grin and twinkle in his eye to let you know he was kidding, “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor and I can tell you which one I liked better”. Through all of life’s challenges he never lost sight of what mattered most, his commitment to his Savior and to his family.
George was preceded in death by his father, Charles Elmer Kershaw; mother, Josie Mable Kinghorn; brother, Hyrum Watkins Kershaw; brother, Elmer Glenn Kershaw; brother, Larry Morton Kershaw; sister, Marcea Mae Kershaw; and sister, Janalin Kershaw. He is survived by his sister, LaFaun Andrews; wife, Norene (Larsen) Kershaw; daughter, Christy Costantino (Michael); son, Lynn Kershaw (Susie); daughter, Cheryl Carpenter (Glade); daughter, Connie Barber (Charles); and son, David Kershaw (Susanne). Funeral services will be held Tuesday, November 27, 2018 at 11 a.m. at the Crerekside Stake Center, 1480 Phillips Street, Kaysville.
Friends may visit family Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Lindquist’s Layton Mortuary, 1867 No. Fairfield Road and Tuesday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the church. Interment, Lindquist’s Memorial Park at Layton, 1867 No.
Fairfield Road.
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