Annette Slade

Our dear mother, Verdis Annette Howard Slade, died peacefully at home in Eden, Utah on August 27, 2026 at the age of 93.

She was born on April 17, 1933 in Holladay, Utah to Erin Neils Anderson Howard and Verdis Eliza Berrett, two parents who believed in Jesus Christ and provided a loving home. They taught her the importance of prayer, hard work, respect for family, a love of God’s creations, and the enjoyment of music. They exemplified the joy that comes with a belief in the Savior and being active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Many hours of her formative years were spent working alongside her father in his grocery store on Highland Drive in Holladay, Utah. She spent her time after school and on Saturdays stocking shelves, filling bags with potatoes, beans, rice, and placing eggs carefully into cartons. She felt very grown up when her dad promoted her to be a checker at age 14.

In high school, she was drawn to the business-type classes, such as Business English, Shorthand, and Typing. During her Junior year, she was asked to record a two-hour long funeral in shorthand–a challenging feat in the days before recorders. Through that process of transcribing and preparing the final product for this revered community member’s family, she felt the Spirit of Elijah in her soul. Recording life stories of ancestors was a source of joy ever since. Mom’s great-grandparents on both paternal and maternal lines joyfully and wholeheartedly accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ upon hearing the news from missionaries, friends or relatives, and left their beloved homelands of Denmark, Ireland and England, and crossed over treacherous seas and plains before settling in Utah. She regularly sent us little snippets of these stories to pass down the legacy of our faithful ancestors.

After graduating from Granite High in 1951, she worked various secretarial jobs and attended BYU and the University of Utah. When her “good friend” Thomas Edmund Slade, with whom she attended her Junior Prom in high school, arrived home from his mission, they married two months later in the Salt Lake Temple on September 1, 1955. They settled into a life of getting through school and collecting their six delightful children: Melanie (John Lucena), JoAnn (Layne Christensen), Jennefer (Lane Steinagel), Bryan (Tammy Bennett), Paul (Kari Schmerer), and Bethanie (Paul Kloepfer). Tom began his profession of physical therapy in Sacramento and Roseville, California, where they raised their family and lived for almost 40 years.

With her firm testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, she lovingly and faithfully raised her children with examples of righteousness, service, devotion to Christ, and a lifelong passion for learning. Mom filled her home with books, and she read them all. When she wanted to know something, she read and researched until she felt she had a full knowledge of it, whether it was gospel or health related. She educated herself and then adopted her learning to her life.

We were spoiled by Mom’s incredible homemaking skills, being sent off to school and early morning seminary with a hot breakfast and coming home from school with freshly baked homemade whole wheat bread, hot from the oven, for an after school snack. She sewed clothes and costumes for us, played the piano and sang with us, taught us the Gospel, and encouraged us to follow our own passions in sports, dance, and music. She recorded all the funny sayings we said growing up and compiled the “Slade Funny Book” that is a treasure to us all. We were truly blessed by this amazing woman. Her happiness was in being a wife and mother and in following her loving Savior in hopes of being where He is in the next realm. We are sure that is where she is.

Mom’s life is a legacy of love, humor, intelligence, and devotion, passed down to her 6 children, 26 grandchildren, and 36 great grandchildren. She loved spending time with all of her progeny and sharing stories of her own life and the lives of all her ancestors. And in her own words, “I attribute my long, full, and happy life partially to a daily dose of decadent dark chocolate, sugar free, of course.”

She is preceded in death by her husband of 53 years, Tom, her parents, Erin and Verdis, her brother Jack, sister Darlene, and grandson Tom Haas.

We love you, Mom. We know we will see you again.

Funeral Services will be held on Wednesday, September 2nd, at 11:00 am at the Wolf Creek Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2900 N Hwy 162, Eden, Utah 84310.

Live stream link for the funeral services: https://zoom.us/j/93862875936?pwd=VZsK0D0fSZt0WbarCD6s54kp3tn056.1

Interment will follow at 2:30 pm at Memorial Holladay Cemetery, 4900 South Memory Lane, Holladay, Utah 84117.