State and Local Obituary Notices
Mary O.T. Pratt
Preston, Ida.—Mrs. Mary Owens Thompson Pratt of Preston died Wednesday at 2:15 p.m., at her home, 35 East Second South Street.
Seventy-six years old, she was born March 7, 1866, in Henefer, Utah, daughter of William and Elizabeth Roberta Owens.
She spent her girlhood in Smithfield, attending the existing schools. She and her brother John went to the Brigham Young College at Logan for almost six months.
She married Thomas William Thompson of Smithfield, June 19, 1888, in the Logan Temple. The ceremony was performed by Merriner W. Merrill. Her husband died May 12, 1890. About two months after his death, her eldest child was born. A year later she, her brother Will, and her mother, moved to Preston.
She was the first teacher in Glendale, Ida., where she taught for three months for $60. Then she spent a few years with her sister Jeanette in Soldier Canyon, between Price and Vernal, Utah.
Later she returned to her mother’s home in Fairview, Ida., where she worked in the Fairview store owned by Moroni W. Pratt. Mr. Pratt and Mrs. Thompson were married Nov. 7, 1894 in the Logan Temple. Mr. Pratt is the son of Parley P. Pratt, well-known pioneer,. She took care of his eight children by another marriage and became the mother of nine of her own.
In 1903 they moved to Preston, where Mr. Pratt ran a dairy herd. They moved to Treasureton in 1904 and lived on a farm. Mr. Pratt died June 28, 1911, in a Salt Lake hospital. She is mother of 10 children, eight of whom are living.
During her life she has been very active in Church affairs. While living at Fairview she was first counselor in the Relief Society; in the Preston Second and First Wards she was Relief Society teacher. For 16 years she was assistant secretary-treasurer and librarian and magazine agent in the Relief Society of the First Ward. Since that time, she has been visiting teacher and special trainer for visiting sick and aged.
She is survived by eight children: Mrs. Laura P. Gamble, Mrs. Veda Baker, and Milton Pratt of Preston; Mrs. Viola P. Dunkley of Whitney; Mrs. Athleen P. Walton of Cleveland and Harold Pratt of Portland; the following step-children: Mrs. Eva P. Griffeth of Dayton; Frank Pratt of Clearfield; Mrs. Mabel P. Van Orden of Bancroft; Mrs. Hazel P. Christensen of Las Vegas and Mrs. Florence Fackenhall of Portland; 30 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be conducted Monday at 2 p.m., in the Preston First Ward chapel. Burial will take place in the Smithfield Cemetery. Friends may call Saturday afternoon and Sunday at the Hendricks Mortuary and after 10 a.m. Monday at her home in Preston.
[Deseret News, Aug. 21, 1942, 10]
[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, Jan. 2006]
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