Stacy Marie Anderson

Stacy Marie Anderson was born on October 22, 1975 in Walnut Creek, California, to Lee and Lew Killpack. She was welcomed home by her older brother and sister, Val and Lecia. A few years later, the Killpack clan would be complete when Becky was born.

Her family later moved across the country to Weare, New Hampshire. Here she was raised in a 1770-ish colonial home. She grew up alongside chickens, goats, cows, and pigs. The pigs especially thought they were members of the family and would often let themselves into the house and help themselves to the pantry. Growing up on the farm Stacy learned the value of hard work and having fun. Along with collecting eggs, feeding the pigs, and other chores, she was also able to enjoy jumping from the hay loft and having other adventures in the barn. She also learned the “joys” of living in a 200-year old home, like getting to be the first in the bathroom and “breaking the ice” on the toilet during the cold New England winters.

While in New Hampshire, she learned to ride her horse, Cinnamon, alongside her neighbor and teacher, Susan, that lived across the street. With Cinnamon, Stacy competed in Dressage, earning multiple ribbons through the years. She also enjoyed other activities that came along with rural living, including trips to the General Store for “true” penny candy, swimming in the nearby reservoir, and learning to ski at nearby Pat’s Peak. Not exactly like the mountains in the West, but tall enough to learn to ski.

Growing up in the Killpack home, Stacy was introduced to multiple great adventures. Summers would involve camping, hiking and canoeing…some even combining all three and getting to carry the canoe overland while hiking to the next river. Stacy passed on the love of outdoor adventure to her children. Many of their favorite vacation memories involve national parks…but usually enjoyed from the comfort of a hotel, condo or cabin.

Stacy spent her teen years growing up in the suburbs of Baltimore/Washington DC after her family moved to Damascus, Maryland. During high school, Stacy excelled at Field Hockey and soccer. Many of her life-long friends would be made with teammates from her field hockey team.

Stacy was also a gifted musician. She learned to play the violin using the Suzuki method and was able to attend many summer camps to hone this skill. She also learned to play the piano. While her father was a Stake High Counselor in New Hampshire, Stacy and the family would often travel with him for his speaking assignments. Stacy would almost always be asked to accompany for the meetings or provide a musical number, even at a very young age. One year, she asked for a piano for Christmas, expecting a small toy piano or possibly even a “real” keyboard. Imagine her surprise when she awoke Christmas morning to a parlor grand that had been salvaged and lovingly restored by her mother. This piano still makes beautiful music in the Anderson home. Every house they lived in, one of the requirements was always a place for this 100+ year-old piano.

Stacy has always enjoyed going to school and learning. This is evident when reviewing her transcripts which included classes at nearly a dozen colleges and universities. Most of her initial university experience was at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Her initial plan was to become either an engineer or an actuary. Since she has always excelled at math, these seemed like perfect fits. However, plans changed when she met Paul Anderson on LDSSingles.com in November of 2000.

Through this new and “experimental” way of meeting people, and through a couple of completely random events, Stacy saw Paul’s profile and decided to message this guy who was nearly 10 years older than she. After a few weeks of exchanging messages, they finally arranged their first date, dinner at Chili’s in December. Stacy was smart insisting on driving herself to a very public place for the first date, just in case. Fortunately, dinner went well, except for the fact that she did question Paul ordering a salad….what kind of guy orders a salad on a first date?? Retelling of their first date is still sure to get the family laughing when the event is recounted or Paul orders a salad. As the date ended, they walked to their cars in the parking lot and found that they had parked right next to each other and, even more of a coincidence, they both drove Saturns. Obviously, it was meant to be.

Messaging continued for a few weeks after this dinner. However, their second 1st date would not happen until mid-February of 2001. Depending on whose story you choose to believe, the reason for this big gap between dates is due to differing factors. But suffice it to say, that following that second 1st date, they were definitely meant to be together. Much to everyone’s surprise, they were engaged in June and married in August 2001 in the Logan, Utah Temple for time and eternity.

Once married, Stacy was anxious to get started on her family. After all, Paul wasn’t getting any younger. However, Paul felt strongly that she should complete her college degree before starting a family. So as soon as they returned from the honeymoon, one of the first things she did was to meet with her college counselor to see how quickly she could graduate. She found she was only three classes short from a degree in Sociology. Stacy quickly changed her major from Mathematics to Sociology and graduated in May 2002.

With degree in hand, Paul and Stacy were ready to start a family. Although it didn’t come easily and required many procedures and medical interventions, the Anderson home grew quickly over the next six years, welcoming Calista, Jack, Shaylee, and Preston. At one time they had four kids, four and under, and all still in diapers or pull-ups. Those early years were tiring for the family, but they worked hard at providing a loving home for their children and, of course, their dogs.

Stacy was a wonderful mother, and it was definitely one of her proudest achievements. While, technically, she was a stay at home mom for many years, she also held many part-time jobs to contribute to the family funds. One of her biggest brags is that she never had her kids in day care and that either she or Paul were always a primary care giver. When Preston was young, she would often take him with her to work. One of these part-time jobs was as a teacher aide, teaching math to children requiring extra interventions, at Heritage Elementary where the kids attended.

One day, the principal approached her about why she wasn’t teaching full-time. Stacy thought she was too old at 32 to start teaching. The principal thought it was a ridiculous reason and made a couple of calls. Within a day, she had arranged for Stacy to meet with an admissions counselor at Western Governor’s University and pretty much guaranteed her employment as soon as she was certified. Again, Stacy’s love of education really paid off, and she completed her certification and a Masters in Mathematics Education in just about 14 months. She was able to complete her student teaching requirement as a full-time teacher of Mathematics at Layton High School.

Stacy loved teaching at Layton High School and would go the extra mile to help her many students, as well as working as a teacher mentor to help other teachers. If students were willing to put in the time and effort, she made sure they passed. This resulted in many after-contract hours, but she successfully saw well over a 2000 students thru basic 10th-grade math and helped about 200 students pass AP Statistics. She also assisted with he grading and evaluation of the AP Stats test for a couple of years. In 2021, after being diagnosed with Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma, she would do her best to make sure that her chemo treatments never interfered with the AP Stats class, and would often return to class on Friday after a full day of chemo treatment on Thursday in order to make sure her students’ needs were met. She continued teaching through her first two years of battling cancer. It was one of the hardest decisions she ever made when she realized she could no longer continue teaching. She finished her teaching career at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

Without school taking up the majority of her waking hours, Stacy faced a new challenge…how to fill the hours in a day? The answer to the question was answered with Quilting and “doing lunch.”

Just before marrying Paul, Stacy had become interested in quilting. Paul had already been quilting for many years and helped her learn many tips and tricks. She excelled in her quilting skills and owned/operated a quilt store, Threads of Time. With kids in tow, she enjoyed three years as a shop owner, but realized it was too much when child number 4 came along. With exposure to creative and artistic expression at the quilt store, all of her children developed their own artistic talents and love of crafting.

Stacy made it a goal to create a keepsake quilt for each of her four children before she passed. These weren’t to be just any old, thrown-together quilts, but rather detailed works of art. Many hours were spent at her sewing machine to complete this task, with the last quilt being completed within days after her passing, with the help of many quilting friends. Of course, other quilts were also produced during this time for friends and family experiencing moments of both celebration and grief.

In addition to quilting, she also developed some wonderful relationships with the ladies in her ward. Rarely would a week go by when she wasn’t going to breakfast, brunch, or lunch with someone. Paul quickly learned, that there was no need to worry if she hadn’t returned home within four or five hours….she was at lunch! Stacy cherished these moments when she could both learn from and share life experiences, all while enjoying chips and bean dip at Garcia’s or bottomless fries at Red Robin.

Stacy has always been an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was firmly on the covenant path. The church provided her with many opportunities to serve others by accepting callings in Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary presidencies, and as a teacher in each of these organizations as well. Stacy and Paul shared a love of teaching the little ones. By their calculations, they taught over 150 Sunbeams during their many years of teaching these groups of 3-4 year-olds. She also enjoyed visiting teaching and ministering and still cherishes the friends made through these service opportunities.

Stacy’s battle with cancer lasted nearly 4 years. She was definitely a living miracle when the initial prognosis was 6-9 months…maybe 12 if everything really worked in her favor. During this time, Stacy was able to continue to share her testimony with countless people, through both word and action. Throughout her battle, the family’s mantra has been, and will continue to be, “Choose Joy.” She continued to find joy and help others recognize the joy to be found, although confronted with this terminal disease.

Stacy was preceded in death by her grandparents, J. Dean and Marion Worthington, Val Lewis and Afton Killpack, and her sister Becky Killpack. She is survived by her husband, Paul; children Calista, Jack, Shaylee and Preston; parents V. Lewis and Lee Killpack, brother Val Killpack and sister Lecia (Aaron) Somma and their children Jordan, Luke, Hannah, Grace and Lauren.

Stacy and her family wish to express their sincerest thanks to Dr. Carl Gray and his staff and nurses at Utah Hematology/Oncology; Dr. G. Weldon Gilcrease and his staff and nurses at the Huntsman Cancer Institute; and the caring nurses at Community Nursing Services, especially Robbie, Alina, Natalie, and Kylie, who made Stacy’s final days and hours not only comfortable, but meaningful.

A viewing will be held on Friday, May 16, 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Russon Mortuary in Farmington, Utah. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, May 17, at 11:00 a.m. in Layton at 901 West Stone Brook Lane, with visitation 9:30-10:30 a.m. Internment will be at the Millville-Nibley Cemetery in the beautiful and serene Cache Valley.

The funeral services will be streamed through Zoom. Below is the link and the Meeting ID and Passcode.

https://zoom.us/j/93462771031?pwd=Y2Q3VUt3ckd5VDJxQlFRUEY0MVJudz09

Meeting ID: 934 6277 1031Passcode: 612466