MARY PRISCILLA LERWILL CROUCH

                                                         BORN: October 28, 1858

          DIED: March 11, 1942

                                                    Daughter of William Lerwill and

                                                                    Mary Rawle

                                                         FUNERAL SERVICES

                                                                  March 14, 1942

                                                      Twenty Seventh Ward Chapel

                                                              Salt Lake City, Utah

                                                                    PROGRAM

                                                  Bishop Parley P. Eccles officiating

Vocal Duet ...................................................@Oh, My Father@

                                                V. E. Jarman and Mrs. Minnie Priestly

Invocation .................................................... J. Vern Taylor

Vocal Duet ...................................................@An Angel From on High@

V. E. Jarman and Mrs. Minnie Priestly

Speaker .......................................................  Bishop Joel Richards

Contralto Solo ............................................. @Open the Gates of the Temple@

Mrs. Anne Jones

Speaker ....................................................... Joseph E. Knapp

Remarks ...................................................... Bishop Parley P. Eccles

Solo ............................................................. AI Know That My Redeemer Lives@

Mrs. Anne Jones

Benediction ................................................. Bishop George F. Robinson

Dedication of Grave .................................... Pres. George F. Christensen

                                                                   INTERMENT

                                                           Salt Lake City Cemetery 

                                                       Fourth Avenue and N Street  

Speaker                                                                                                             Bishop Joel  Richards

My dear brothers and sisters, I feel honored in being asked to say a few words today over the remains of Sister Crouch.  She and her good  husband  have lived  in this ward with her daughter, son-in-law, and family for several years.  They have become endeared to every member of this ward because of their faith, integrity, and devotion.  I do not know of any couple who has greater faith in the hereafter and who has less fear of meeting that uncertain beyond.

A  few  months ago when Brother Crouch was stricken, he thought his time had come,  in fact  he rather hoped that  it had come.   He was anxious to make that great adventure to the other side because of the great faith he has  that it is a place where there is no more sorrow, suffering,  or

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heartaches, and that God, our Eternal Father, is there with His son, Jesus Christ, to welcome those who are worthy to go into their presence.

Drummond has said that  ALove is the greatest thing in the world, and mother love represents the highest, holiest, and most unselfish, purest and most lasting love that mortals know.@

     AThe only love which, on this teaming earth,

    Ask no return for passion=s wayward birth.@

    A mother=s love, how sweet the name!

What is a mother=s love?

    A noble, pure, and tender flame

Enkindled from above,

    To bless a heart of earthly mold;

    The warmest love that can=t grow cold,

            This is a mother=s love.

AHome@ and   Amother@ are two of the most beautiful words in the English language.  It has  been said by Pres. J. Reuben Clark: AEverybody knows that home is not the four walls that keep out the cold, the wind, and the storm, nor the rooms therein that add comfort to the dwellers.  These are merely the house under which the home is roofed.  A man may build a house, but it takes a woman  to build a home.@  As Edgar A. Guest expresses it, AIt is no wonder that the loftiest harps have been tuned to sing AHome, Sweet Home.@

Sister Crouch has been a queen in her home.  She has really made of her house a home where  love prevailed and where her children were brought up in the fear and admonition of God, our Eternal Father.  She has not only been a true mother to her children, but the other children of her husband  have been taken care of by her in just the same way as if they had been her very own.

Home is not only a charmed word as it pertains to this life C as we think of that word with all it connotes in our early childhood, with all the scenes that have been enacted around the place we know as Ahome.@  Home has a much greater meaning C our heavenly home, that home from which  we came into this life, for we all dwelt in that heavenly home as spirit children of God, our Eternal Father.  In order that we might progress and become like unto our Eternal Father, with a body of flesh and bone, the Lord created this earth on which we might come and dwell, obtain experience  and obtain a body, which after death shall be placed in mother earth but shall come forth again in the resurrection to become the eternal and everlasting abode of that spirit.  When we understand the whole scheme and purpose of life, we understand that it did not originate in mortality.  As Wordsworth said:

   Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

   The soul that rises with us, our life=s star,

   Hath elsewhere had  its setting       

   And cometh from afar:

   Not in entire forgetfulness,

   And not in utter nakedness,

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   But trailing clouds of glory do we come

   From God, who is our home.

When we understand that relationship to our Heavenly Father C that we dwelled with him before we came here and that we shall again take up our abode with him if we are worthy, then we can face this thing that we call death as Brother Crouch faces it today C  unafraid, without worry,

without any fear.  He knows that Sister Crouch, his beloved companion, has just gone back home.  We are told that in that home to which she has returned, there is no sorrow nor suffering; that all is peace and happiness for those who have earned that reward.  To the wicked it will be a state of fearful anxiety as they will then realize that eventually they must stand before the judgement bar of God and give an accounting of their wasted lives here in mortality.  When God designed and created this earth on which his children might dwell, He said: AWe will prove them herewith to see of they  will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads forever and ever.@  (Abraham 3:25-26) And so we are here in this existence and the Lord is testing us.  It is a school of experience wherein we can grow and develop and prepare ourselves to return again to our Heavenly Father in that heavenly home to which Sister Crouch has now gone, and all who knew her know beyond a shadow of doubt that she has kept this second estate.  She has fought the good fight and has kept the faith and henceforth there is laid up for her a crown of righteousness far beyond our power to conceive.  AEye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.@ (1 Cor. 2:9)  Truly, Sister Crouch loved God with all her might, mind and strength and her neighbor as herself.  Her whole life has been dedicated to her church and to her family.  They have been first and foremost to her.

This change that has now come, which we call death, is not the final change.  Today Sister Crouch is somewhat in the same condition which she was in before she came into mortal existence.  She now exists in that spiritual body which can never die.  She has a recollection now not only of her experiences in mortality, but also her pre-existent life, and all of that knowledge of her former association with her Father in Heaven.  She will be with her loved ones there.  We cannot imagine the joy and happiness of that meeting with her two children who went over there years ago, and with her father and mother and all others who are so near and dear to her.  Brigham Young said that the joy of meeting our loved ones beyond far surpasses any joy that we can comprehend of here on similar meetings, no matter how long or under what conditions we may have been separated from our loved ones.

Sister Crouch will await her husband a little while.  She has just gone over to tidy up the house, to make preparation for when her companion comes and they will have again that glorious reunion and continue on in their heavenly mansion until the time comes when the trumpet of God is sounded and the graves shall be opened and all these bodies shall come forth quickened by the Spirit of God and the dross shall have been removed from them.  They shall come forth into newness of life and these spirits shall inhabit them and they shall go on throughout all eternity in their exalted condition and glory which they merit through their faithfulness here.  There are three degrees of glory C Telestial, Terrestrial, and Celestial.  Sister Crouch will be heir of the Celestial glory where

God and Christ dwell.  Not only will she be heir of that glory, but to the highest kingdom   in that

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glory, (for we are told there are three heavens, or degrees within the Celestial kingdom) because they have been sealed together for time and all eternity under the power of the Holy Priesthood which God has restored to the earth in these latter days.  They shall have power to Apass by the angels and the Gods which are set there to their exaltation and glory in all things as hath been sealed upon the heads, which glory shall be a fullness and a continuation of the seeds for ever and ever.@  (Doc. &

Cov. 132:19)

In conclusion, I would like to read these beautiful words which I think would express the sentiments of Brother Crouch at this time:

Across the moorland bleak and bare

I watch the sunset sky,

Tho= your pure soul is dwelling there

Sweethearts still are you and I.

Tho= angels took them from my side

To yonder realms divine,

The link that bound us here below

Still binds my heart to thine.

I cannot clasp thy tender hand,

Thy voice I cannot hear,

Yet in my dreams I see thy face

Shine bright mid starlight clear.

The clouds may hide from me they sphere,

Yet still the link divine,

Tho= thou art there and I am here

Will bind my heart to thine.

It won=t be long, Brother Crouch, until that binding link will bring you again to your beloved wife, and you can take her in your arms and love and cherish her in that heavenly home where you will have God and our elder brother, Jesus Christ, to talk to and the angel to converse with. You will  enjoy the companionship and association of God=s servants who have dwelt here upon this earth. Your joy and exaltation shall be supreme, far beyond your power, with your infinite mind to comprehend.

God bless you and your family.  May He fill your souls with that faith and understanding which He has so abundantly blessed you with, that you may from the depths of your heart feel and say: The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away;  blessed be the name of the Lord.@ (Job 1:21) May His peace and comfort be with you always, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.   

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Speaker                                                                                                                   Joseph E.  Knapp

First, let me say AAmen@ to the remarks that have been made with respect to the good Sister whose remains lie before us.  I  represent the former neighborhood of Brother and Sister Crouch.  We had a splendid neighborhood.  We exchanged thoughts;  helped one another through trials and  tribulations; and often administered to each other through our faith in the Priesthood of Almighty God.

Sister Crouch had a great deal of faith in her husband and the Priesthood he held and in the  Priesthood of others.  When I had to go to the hospital, I had a terrible feeling about going to have  a knife cut into me.  I was to be operated on for hernia,  so I called in Brother Crouch and Brother  Nesbitt, and they pronounced a blessing on my head.  All fear left me.  When I came out from under the anesthetic, I didn=t even feel as if  I had been cut into, and when the doctor came to remove the bandage to dress the incision, it was healed.  You could hardly see the scar.  The doctor called the nurses and the rest of the doctors on the floor and said he wanted them to see something.  It was miraculous.

Persons in the neighborhood would gather in my home in a family prayer circle in favor of one of the neighbors.  I administered to Brother Crouch when he was ill.  He said once when he was very ill he did not want me to tickle his ears, but wanted me to speak as I was moved upon by the spirit.  He was not afraid to go.  He felt his time had come.  Sister Crouch felt that she could not spare him, and so she put her head as close to me as she could and asked that I command him to arise.  Now she has been taken on and she did not fear to be taken.

I  know she had not a single enemy.   To know her was to love her.  To know him was to love him.  There could  be no better neighbors.  If  there were more such characters in the world today, we might be at peace today.  There would be no selfishness, no worshiping of the almighty dollar, or  the admiration of caste of position.  We would have the simple faith that this dear couple has.  Faith in God Almighty who has restored the gospel to the world, and who says that what you learn in this  life will go with you in the resurrection.  Intelligence does not mean simply training.  Mostly it means knowledge that comes to members of the church, plus the spirit of God.  Power through the Priesthood gives us intelligence, which intelligence this dear woman possessed to a high degree.  Certainly she will have glory added upon her head for ever and ever.

Brothers and sisters, I  have been thinking how long a person would have to go to college or some secular school to produce the same results that can be accomplished by an Elder in the church.  I have confessions of two scientists.  (Read clippings)

By now they seem to have learned, as the confession says, that happiness comes not through secular study.  It comes through living the gospel, in honoring the Priesthood which we have conferred upon those worthy.

Brother Crouch and I  have conversed many times, and I know his feelings and his thoughts.  I feel that we have been together long enough, but I want to say to you that you have been blessed

of God to have been given such a companion as this good woman.  She has been a true wife, a true          6

mother, a kind neighbor and friend to all of us.  She has indeed kept her first and second estate.   She

has now gone  to a partial reward.   She is happy  and will wait and  prepare for the coming of her

husband and her children because it is her joy and happiness.  Brother Ballard once said that it would be no heaven to him if he could not associate with his dear friends and loved ones.

May God  bless you and your family and prosper you, and may you have the will of God made known to you, for you shall meet with your wife again and enjoy yourself with her eternally, is the prayer of your humble servant in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

                   MEMORIES OF GRANDMOTHER AND GRANDFATHER CROUCH

                                                       By Ruth Rockwood Harmon

When I was born on March 21, 1926 my parents were living in the west side of a duplex  owned  by Mr. Runswick at 760 Garfield Avenue in Salt Lake City.  Near then or the following year, Grandpa and Grandma Crouch moved into the east side of the duplex.  I was one  and a half years old when we moved to a new home, built by my dad, on Emerson Avenue.  I have vivid memories of the duplex and yard through our visits to grandma and grandpa over the next nine years.

The rooms in the duplex were all small C one bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and living room.  The furniture in the living room took up most of the space.  There was a couch, dining table and a buffet.  A platform rocker, and a Tiffany type lamp (a gift from Zina) on a square end table were part of the decor.  I also remember a pink fluted glass bowl on the table or buffet. In the tiny kitchen was a small table, rocking chair and coal stove.  Cabinets along the west wall held  dishes, pans and food supplies. The bedroom and bathroom were at the back.  There was a deep front yard with large lilac bushes to shield a span of clothes lines from being viewed from the street.  A dirt alley went from the street along the east side of the yard and house.

I was five years old when my brother Erv was born. I had the whooping cough so I stayed with grandma and grandpa.  Grandma would hold me on her lap in her rocking chair and rock to try to ease the coughing.  When I threw up during a coughing spell, she was concerned until she realized it was not blood but the tomato juice we had for supper.  One night I  went back home to stay with mother while dad was away.  When mother had to leave me several times to go upstairs to attend to the baby, I cried to go back to be with grandma. 

Grandma  kept an orderly home.  She also did beautiful handiwork.  Embroidered and crocheted  doilies, runners and table cloths decorated the rooms.  She taught these skills to her daughters, Zina and Veda.  Grandma also enjoyed cutting and sewing small pieces of fabric quilt blocks that were made into tops for beautiful quilts.  Zina and Veda each inherited some.  When I was engaged to be married  mother finished  two of her quilts for my trousseau   The Relief Society sisters in the 27^th Ward helped with the quilting.  When my daughters, Lori and Carol, were going to be married,  I finished a quilt for each of them and the Relief Society sisters  in the Oak Hills 1^st Ward in Provo did the quilting.

The house dresses and aprons grandma wore were clean and crisp and her hair always looked neat.  She curled her hair by wrapping the moistened hair around strips of cloth.  After the hair was dried  and combed she made a part in the middle and arranged the curls.  A  grey hair net was used to hold  them in place.

I  remember meeting grandma=s sister, Lydia, when she came to visit grandma. My memory  is the platform rocker I inherited from my mother  was a gift from Lydia to grandma.  There were visits  to a niece and her husband, Ethel and David Levene.  Dad was doing some remodeling on their home in Holladay so we went to see the progress.  Ethel offered  us delicious ice cold  lemonade and ice tea.  I only took a small sip to see how the tea tasted.

When grandma and grandpa came to live in our home in October 1935 the front door entry room became their sitting room.  I liked to sit and read  the story in her The Relief Society Magazine when it came each month.  The bedroom was furnished with  their own furniture.  A small room next to the bedroom had been changed to a  kitchenette for previous renters so grandma was able to cook  their meals. Our bathroom was shared.  They enjoyed sitting on the front porch on cool summer evenings.  They missed their friends in the Richards Ward but soon gained  new  friends in the Twenty Seventh Ward.  

Grandpa=s bicycle ride to the temple was easier from our house but he decided  a  motorcycle would be even better. He drove one home one day, but grandma put her foot down on his riding a  motorcycle as well as the scooter that soon followed.  Grandpa continued to ride the bicycle as long  as his health permitted.  When the health of both of them deteriorated they were blessed to be parted for only a short time since grandpa passed away a few months after grandma. 

In recalling  these memories of grandma, I   realized the close  relationship she and my mother had with the children of Aunt Jane, grandpa=s first wife.  Uncle Eb and Aunt Winn Crouch lived in Salt Lake so there were  visits with his family.  Aunt Win and Uncle Ed Budge lived in California.  Visits to their children in Utah always included seeing grandma and grandpa.  Grandpa  and grandma were also invited to their home in California.  My  mother took care of  Uncle  Jim  Crouch in his declining years.  His sight was injured when he was young.  Aunt Maude Edwards and her two sons kept in touch with grandma and grandpa, and with mother when her parents died.

As I  studied different sources to learn about Grandma Crouch I realized that nothing was mentioned  about her church callings.  I think she must have been a dedicated visiting teacher who gave much compassionate service.  Perhaps she shared her talents in Relief Society Work Meetings by teaching the sisters how to crochet or make the tiny stitches in quilts she had pieced.