Delores Hug Harris Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

At three o’clock in the morning on a cold winter night in Logan, Utah; November 26, 1929, nine-year-old Sonja (Sonia) Hug was sent out into the cold to knock on the neighbors’ door to ask to use their phone to call a doctor. By the time the doctor arrived, though, little Delores Hug had already come into the world and had been wrapped in a diaper by her sister to ward off the cold of the chilly room. Delores was the youngest of three children and the first to be born in the United States. Her parents and her older sister and brother had emigrated to Utah from Switzerland just a short time before. Delores was a tomboy. As a young girl, she formed a club called the Terrible Tens, which you could only join if you could perform ten dares, including one which involved climbing to the upper branches of a tall pine tree and snatching down a handkerchief which had been planted there by her or one of her other daredevil friends. After graduating from Logan High School, Delores attended Utah State University in Logan, where she met her future husband, James Harris of Ogden, Utah. They graduated together, and then Delores taught school for a year while Jim was finishing up his master’s degree. They were married in 1953 and honeymooned at Niagara Falls on their way to Ithaca, New York, where Jim entered a Doctorate program at Cornell. There, Delores taught sixth grade until the birth of their oldest child, Jim, enticed her out of the classroom. Delores and Jim fully expected to return to a job at Utah State in Logan after they finished up at Cornell. However, fate would send them to Provo and Brigham Young University instead. At first disappointed by this change in plans, Delores came to love the mountains of Provo, and they made their home here until 2017 when Jim died and just this week when Delores, too, passed away. Like her husband, Delores grew up in modest circumstances, but the two of them were blessed with the ability to make do with what they had, and they created a wonderful life for themselves and their children. For example, Delores was an excellent seamstress, making beautiful clothes for her children and herself for many years. This included sailor suits, many beautiful dresses, and a number of creative Halloween costumes. Later, she continued this tradition for her grandchildren. They did leave Provo for short periods in the 1960s and 1970s to take sabbatical leaves from the university to Colorado, Hawaii, and California. And, after retirement in 1994, Jim and Delores served a mission in historic Nauvoo, Illinois from 1999 to 2000, which was a highlight of their retirement years. Delores was committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and served diligently in a number of different callings in the Pleasant View 1st Ward in Provo. Her favorite job was working with children in the primary, and many fondly remember her leading the singing in the junior primary room. When her mother was approaching the end of her life, Delores brought her to her home, where she lived for six months out of the year while her older sister, Sonja, hosted her for the other six. She expertly juggled caring for her mother and her youngest three children with a full-time job teaching kindergarten at Edgemont Elementary School on the north side of Provo. Her high school aged children have fond memories of visiting her in her kindergarten room during their breaks and lunch hour from school at nearby Timpview. Delores blessed the lives of many young children through her kindergarten teaching, and she has run into many of them again over the years, including her dentist, her dermatologist, her next-door neighbor Joan Barnett’s grandson, and many others who have recognized her in and around Provo over the years. Delores is survived by her eight children: James (Melinda Woolf), Michael (Donna Dutton), Susan (Ray) Hansen, David (Jane England), Linda (Gregg) Pugmire, S. Nathan, Leilani (Burt) Garfield, and Heidi (Todd) Bergeson, 29 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister, Sonja, who will celebrate her 100th birthday in June of this year, as well as sisters-in-law, Barbara (Thayne) Harris and Sonia (Alan) Baczuk. One brother, Heinz Hug, and two grandchildren, Coulter and Haley Harris, preceded her in death. Funeral services will be held at 12 noon, Friday, March 19, 2021 at the Pleasant View 1st Ward Chapel, also known as the Stadium Avenue Chapel, at 650 East Stadium Avenue in Provo. For those who prefer to attend via Zoom, please access the following link 10-15 minutes prior to noon: https://tinyurl.com/DeloresHug. Friends may call at the Berg Mortuary of Provo, 185 East Center Street, on Thursday, March 18 from 6-8:00 p.m. and at the chapel prior to the funeral on Friday morning from 11-11:50 a.m. Interment will be at the Eastlawn Memorial Hills Cemetery in Provo, Utah. Condolences may be expressed at www.bergmortuary.com.

Tributes

Delores Hug Harris

November 26, 1929 - March 15, 2021