Effie Gundersen

Picture of the Day for 4/6/2010. I attended the funeral for a 92-year old neighbor, Effie Gundersen. I LOVED the picture of her sticking out her tongue that was on the back of the funeral program- probably because it reminded me of my own mother. Effie and my mother were cut from the same feisty cloth; you tangled with them at your own peril.

The funeral was great. All of the speakers commented on how Effie was a force of nature and you followed orders without question. This was said with a great deal of affection, of course. Thomas Monson (president of the Mormon church and neighbor) gave the concluding speech. He mentioned how Effie effectively dictated "how things should be" to the point where he felt like he functioned as Effie's representative with the leadership of the church. He claimed that several major church decisions were based solely upon the fact that he was scared to face Effie. He spoke about how once the presidency and the council of the 12 were voting on whether or not to remove the stages from ALL Mormon ward houses. Apparently, it was a "done deal" with the rest of the leadership, but President Monson knew he couldn't face Effie at church if that happened. Effie was the one in our congregation who directed all the plays, roadshows, and the ward choir and having a place in the church buildings to hold musical/theater productions was a BIG deal to her. President Monson successfully campaigned to keep the stages. He also mentioned how the church owned property with a baseball diamond that a buyer was interested in purchasing. Effie worked for 28 years as the "scorer-in-chief" for the Salt Lake County Recreation Department and President Monson knew she'd have a fit if they sold the property. He had to do some campaigning to keep the property from being sold. He proudly stated that the church still owns that property to this day. Those stories made me laugh. Good for Effie for keeping the church leadership on its toes.