Rosalie Parkinson Abrams

On June 26, 2025, our wife and mother, Rosalie Parkinson Abrams peacefully slipped from this life to her heavenly home surrounded by loved ones. She was just shy of 73 years old. Alzheimer’s disease took her life. 

Rosalie was born on July 2, 1952. She was the third of Calvin and Opal Parkinson’s five children, and was raised in a happy home in Franklin, Idaho. Rose was hard-working and loving. From her childhood days picking beans out in her family’s fields near her home, to her long night shifts as a nurse at LDS hospital, she was not afraid of hard work. 

She worked consistently to develop her musical talent and became a beautiful piano player which paid off big. Her sophomore year, as pianist for the Preston high-school musical, South Pacific, she met Tom Abrams and they became inseparable. After high school and Tom‘s LDS mission, they were married on July 2, 1971 in the Logan, Utah temple. Rose and Tom were blessed with four children, Brian, Marianne, Andy, and Alicia. Rose was a devoted and caring mother.

 A few years after the birth of her youngest child, she returned to Weber State to complete her degree in nursing. As an RN, she worked in various nursing positions over the years and enjoyed her work. During this period, she balanced work with church assignments and mothering. She particularly enjoyed accompanying the ward choir in the Winder 5th ward where she and Tom raised their family. But her children always knew that their mom’s most treasured work was raising and loving each of them. 

She made home a wonderful place. She filled the air with piano music and singing. She enjoyed reading short stories and poetry to her children. At Christmas time, the smell of her favorite cinnamon sugar cookies filled the air as she sang and danced to the holiday tunes of John Denver and the muppets. 

However, her most fun work was as Grandma. Making jewelry, raspberry jam, homemade suckers, quilted blankets, and little purses with and for her 18 grandchildren were some of her happiest days.

 Rose was creative and witty. She loved toll painting and spent hours intricately perfecting her projects. She wrote some poetry and, once, as Primary president, even crafted an entire primary program in rhymed verse for the children of her ward to memorize and present. After retiring, Rose and Tom enjoyed serving together as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from their home in Salt Lake City until Rose‘s health began to decline. 

Tom lovingly and faithfully cared for his wife and best friend until it was too much for him. Rose was then placed in the care of the very capable people at Legacy House.

We thank all the kind caregivers from Legacy House who patiently and lovingly nurtured and protected our mother, grandmother, sister, and friend to the end.

 Rosalie loved the gospel of Jesus Christ and strived to live and love like her Savior. We anxiously await the day we will be reunited with her, healed and whole. Until that time, we trust in the Son of Righteousness who comes to us with healing in His wings and the promise of everlasting life. Rosalie is preceded in death by her father, Samuel Calvin Parkinson, her mother, Opal Checketts, her sisters Paulette Blanchard and Mary Jane Anderson. She is survived by her husband, Thomas Abrams, her children Brian (Katie) Abrams, Marianne (Reid) Stout, Andy (Laurie) Abrams, Alicia (Jared) Welch, 18 grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren, and her brothers, Stuart (Lael) Parkinson, and Eric (Kaylene) Parkinson.

The funeral service will be held at the Farmington 1st Ward, 272 N. Main Street, Farmington, Utah, on July 2, 2025 at 11:00 a.m.  There will be a viewing prior to the service at the church from 10:00-10:45.  Rosalie will be buried in the Franklin Cemetery in Franklin, Idaho following the service.