Ann Lee Owens Allred

May 13, 1940 - Jun. 24, 2024

Date of Service: Jun. 29, 2024

On Monday, June 24, 2024, Ann Lee Hatch Owens Allred packed up her gentle smile and ready laugh to go live with the angels.

May 13, 1940, was a lovely spring day when Ann Lee was born to Hazen Atkinson and Gertrude Christensen Hatch. She joined her older sister, Amaryllis, as the young Hatches were creating their family. Gradually brothers, Marshall and Kim, completed the family and soon the Burley, Idaho schools became joyful institutions of learning for the Hatch children. Attending the first grade was Ann Lee’s first dream come true. Southwest Elementary got the oldest three off to a good start. Kim had to wait several years until a special school could be available for developmentally disabled children to accommodate the Cerebral Palsy Kim was born with.

Ann Lee loved school and excelled in most subjects, especially math and science. Hatches lived about ten blocks from school so she could race home after school just in time to get her baby brother down for a nap. That was a specialty in and of itself because the spasticity in his little body was rarely still and sleep eluded him most of the time.

Junior high and high school were in the big gray-stone three-story building downtown and also not far from home. If Ann Lee walked fast and kept up with the grown-up seniors she could get to school in 15 minutes. The children all walked home for lunch and occasionally got a special treat of hot lunch at school and spent the remainder of the hour climbing trees or playing intramural sports. The county school board approved “time release seminary” so the students could attend a religion class as an elective. Ann Lee received her Certificate of Completion after four years. She loved music and sang with the school choir and even competed in the Miss Burley Pageant. That was her leap of faith. The only thing she won was Miss Idaho as a roommate in college that year.

Graduation from high school was her second dream come true. Ann Lee worked summers on the Raft River dry farms and washed dishes and made beds in Yellowstone Park motels to earn enough supplemental scholarship money to attend college in the fall of 1958. Utah State University was her first choice. Because she was strong in math and science she qualified for studies in the new medical field, “Medical Technology” - now called Clinical Laboratory Science. It focused on the analysis of blood and body fluids in the diagnosis and management of disease. She didn’t really know what she was getting into but didn’t have the time or money to play around so she dug her heels in, got part-time jobs on campus and grew to love her work discovering what was making patients ill.

Utah State University graduation came in four years following a 12-month internship at Dee Memorial Hospital in Ogden, Utah - her third dream come true. While attending a professional conference in Denver, Colorado, a year later, Ann Lee secured employment at a new hospital in Thornton, Colorado, to set up and work their medical laboratory. She went back to Ogden, packed her little red Chevrolet and was overwhelmingly welcomed at Valley View Hospital when she arrived 12 hours later.

She soon caught the eye of Dr. Chester Raymond Owens “Chet.” They were married and embraced his family of three daughters, Linda Ann, Stephanie Ellen, and Margi Gralene. Two years later they adopted brothers, Michael Chester and Jack Raymond, and the drama of the growing family began - dream number four. Chet left his private medical practice of 11 years and joined the Veterans Administration system in Denver. Transfer within the system provided several moves around Colorado, Texas, and Chet’s family home of Iowa to be near their children in need. Ann Lee’s skills as laboratory manager were needed in almost every facility where Chet served as well as her skills in the home and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was a caregiver all her life. If you had an “owie” she had a quick fix so you could comfortably resume your activities.

The hemophilia gene causing uncontrollable bleeding and requiring transfusion therapy ran in the family and demonstrated itself in the second grandchild just as transfusion related AIDS reached epidemic proportions. The family still at home transferred to Houston, Texas, to be near the specialists. Using her laboratory skills, Ann Lee became an active member of the treatment team until the family was able to move back to Colorado after their beloved grandson joined the angels.

Colorado was a stepping stone to Burley, Idaho, where Ann Lee’s parents still lived and provided a home for her brother, Kim, who was still in need of care 24/7/365. Ann Lee had promised to be available to help when too many years passed and her parents grew more frail. Fortunately, a position in the Minidoka Memorial Hospital laboratory had just opened and Ann Lee was back to the laboratory work she loved as well as being just a holler away if her folks needed help. She and Chet were now ready and willing to realize dream number five. They both enhanced the medical needs in Idaho for the next 19 years when Chet continued his eternal journey. Ann Lee kept the family homestead going for the precious brother and, as all sweet stories end, she married the boy across the street, Byron Harvey Allred, so they could enjoy the setting sun as the childhood memories faded away.

With a strong faith in her Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, Ann Lee has arrived at dream number six and is survived by many precious people too numerous to mention who passed through her life and are still completing their own.

The funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 29, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 3rd & 7th Ward Chapel, located at 2200 Oakley Avenue, in Burley, with Bishop Eric Page officiating.

Family and friends will be received from 5 until 7 p.m. Friday, June 28, at Rasmussen-Wilson Funeral Home, 1350 E. 16th Street, in Burley, and from 1 until 1:45 p.m. Saturday, preceding the funeral, at the church.

The grave dedication will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 10, at Las Animas Cemetery, 28082 County Road 10.75, in Las Animas, Colorado.

A live webcast of the Funeral Service will be available and maintained at the following link: https://youtu.be/SzA4TjH0fVY.