Mar. 23, 1928 - Oct. 30, 2024
Date of Service: Nov. 9, 2024
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Service Program
ALMO, IDAHO – Ila Mary Hansen Nelson, a 96-year-old former longtime resident of Almo, Idaho, passed away Wednesday, October 30, 2024, in Burley, Idaho.
Ila was born March 23, 1928, in Brigham City, Utah, to Alfred Henry and Lydia Sofia Hindburg Hansen. She was the fourth child and the first girl to join the family. The Hansens would eventually add two more boys and a baby sister.
Ila was raised on a farm where there was always work to be done. Her family was very close and had a strong bond. She often talked about the loving environment she grew up in. She helped her dad and brothers with the outside chores, but she much preferred being inside, keeping house with her mom. Lydia taught Ila how to bake, crochet and sew. These are talents she loved to share with others all of her life.
She enjoyed school and had a beautiful singing voice. She participated in many plays, singing groups, and liked to compete in softball. Her dad and brothers were very gifted musically and played several instruments. Music always filled their home and celebrations.
Her family had a tradition of making homemade ice cream, and it was a lifelong favorite treat for her. She was still enjoying going on outings to the Dairy Queen drive though for a hot fudge sundae with her daughter, Susan, as recently as a few weeks ago.
Ila had many lifelong friends, and she had a special childhood friend, Rita Mae Campbell, that she shared many of her childhood hopes and dreams with. A few of those dreams were that they could pitch in a softball game, marry cowboys, and live on a ranch. Tragically, Rita passed away very suddenly at age ten from appendicitis. Rita’s death was extremely impactful to Ila, and she often said that she was living her own life for Rita as well. All of those childhood dreams did eventually come true for Ila.
Ila found her cowboy, Keith Stanley Nelson, on Brigham City’s main street on Halloween night, 1942. She was with her friend, Afton, and they were waiting in line for a scary movie double-feature picture show at the Roxy Theatre. Afton introduced them and he was the most handsome boy Ila had ever seen, with his easy grin, dark wavy hair and smiling eyes.
She let him hold her pinky finger during the movie and the next thing you know, they had been dating for 2 ½ years and were married in the Logan Utah Temple on January 30, 1945. Keith had been drafted into World War II and was going to be sent to Japan, so they made the decision to get married before he left. Ila was able to go with him to Texas for basic training and then she returned home to Corinne, Utah, to live with her Grandma Hindburg until Keith got home the following year.
Keith got discharged due to hepatitis and Ila rode the bus from Utah to San Francisco to greet him. He was home that fall just in time for deer season, and that was so wonderful. Six months later they were able to buy “The Ranch” in Lynn, Utah.
The ranch in Lynn became the hub for their life together and is continuing to be so for generations. In Lynn they welcomed their four children: Gary Curtis, Keith Wayne, Susan Lydia, and Nancy Ila. The families in the Lynn valley pulled together to form a community of friends sharing church and school in such a remote place. Ila cut everyone in the valley’s hair and people would arrive at the only TV to watch Gunsmoke together.
To keep the kids in school the Nelson family took turns moving back and forth to Corinne if there were not enough kids to hold school in Lynn, and then they eventually moved to Burley for the kids to attend high school.
Ila had a wonderful knack for making Christmas very special. She used her seamstress skills and would stay up in the middle of the night secretly sewing doll clothes for Susan and Nancy’s dolls, and new clothes for everyone. She would display the new items beautifully, so on Christmas morning the tiny living room looked like a window display.
She loved hosting large family Christmas parties for her grandkids. Not one child was ever left out, and as the kids turned the living room into a blizzard of wrapping paper and tissue, Ila could be heard above the din shouting, “Save the bows!”
The little ranch house was always bursting at the seams when all the families came out to help with calving, branding, deer season, or just because we couldn’t stand to be away from the best place on earth. Ila managed to somehow feed all those people and still have time to make oatmeal cinnamon cookies with chocolate chips and air-popped popcorn for our nightly viewings of KSL news followed by M*A*S*H.
Ila was a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving in many callings, often to do with music or as chorister.
She loved camping and fishing with Keith and her family. They loved traveling to Yellowstone, Lake Cleveland, and to the homestead and the ranch. Together with Keith, they were eventually able to travel to Germany and Hawaii to visit Keith Wayne in the Army, Alaska to visit cousins, and Nauvoo, Illinois.
At the end of Ila’s life, she lost her sight to macular degeneration and eventually most of her hearing. Despite these significant trials, she amazingly managed to keep such a positive attitude, cracking cute jokes, and being generally happy saying, “I am fit as a fiddle.” A true miracle that surrounds Ila’s hearing loss is that right until the end she could always hear Susan’s voice. That tender mercy helped Susan become a conduit for Ila to hear the rest of us. Susan was able to be with Ila in her last moments and that will be a forever gift for both. Ila is with her cowboy sweetheart, once again.
Ila’s posterity includes 17 grandchildren, 53 great-grandchildren, and three great-great- grandchildren. She was so happy to extend her love to the Calleen Ramsey family upon Calleen’s marriage to her son, Keith Wayne.
Ila is survived by her daughter, Susan (Dell) Mitchell; daughter-in-law, Paula Nelson; son-in-law, Gary Nelson; and sister-in-law, Phyliss Johnson.
Ila was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; sons, Gary Curtis Nelson and Keith Wayne Nelson; daughter, Nancy Nelson; daughter-in-law, Calleen Ramsey Nelson; and two grandsons, Rick Keith Nelson and Tyler Curtis Nelson.
The family would like to extend a very special thank you to Home and Heart Assisted Living. Linda Woodbury and her staff treated Ila with dignity and grace during her last years. And thank you to Intermountain Home Health and Hospice for their tender care in Ila’s last moments.
The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, November 9, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located at 824 E. 2985 S., in Almo, with Bishop Marc D. Christensen officiating. Ila’s burial will be next to Keith at Sunny Cedar Rest Cemetery in Almo.
Family and friends will be received from 5 until 7 p.m. Friday, November 8, at Rasmussen-Wilson Funeral Home, 1350 E. 16th Street, in Burley, and from 10 until 10:45 a.m. Saturday, preceding the funeral, at the church.
A live webcast of the Funeral Service will be available and maintained at the following link: https://youtu.be/gTEfflctrq4.
