Delos Alfred Tanner - Walker Funeral Home

Our dear Husband, Father, Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Great-Great-Grandfather, and dear friend to many, Delos Alfred Tanner, passed away Tuesday February 1, 2022, at the age of 92.

Born December 13, 1929, in Payson, Utah, Delos was the oldest of two sons of Reta Ada Sturgis and Alma Jensen Tanner of West Mountain, Utah. Delos grew up in West Mountain, a rural farming community, west of Payson, where his family owned land and farmed. He was the older brother to Bert Tanner, who preceded him in death.

A beautiful girl from Lake Shore, Alene Rose, caught his eye and they were married and sealed for eternity in the Manti LDS Temple on September 21, 1949. They have had a wonderful and happy life together for 72 years. They are the parents of four children: Denis (Sharon) Tanner, Steven (Kathi) Tanner, Kathleen (Kevin) Hoyt, and Carrie Lee (deceased as an infant); and have 10 grandchildren: Kris Tanner, Kory Tanner, Ryan Sass; Michele Gibson, Joseph Tanner, Missy Lambert, Molly Ingram, Marcie Falkner; Kal Hoyt, Karalee Turpin; who all adore their Grandpa. They are the beloved Great-Grandparents to 28, as well as Great-Great-Grandparents to nine, with two on the way.

Delos was active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spent many hours building the West Ward Church in West Mountain (Payson). Delos served in a bishopric as the Ward Clerk and worked in other capacities.

He and Alene worked hard as successful farmers, and also raised livestock, in West Mountain, Utah. They always had a large, beautiful and productive garden. One time, a filming crew came to spend the summer and used the Tanner house, grounds, and farm to film a movie. The family enjoyed their interaction with the actors and film crew.

Delos was a bus driver for Nebo School District for 33 years. The kids on his route thought he was lots of fun; he was quite the jokester. He drove the bus, full of athletes, to sporting events and other school activities. On occasion, he and Alene flew back to Georgia to pick up brand, new buses and drive them home, cross-country to Utah.

Delos and Alene loved to travel to California, Nevada, and Idaho and enjoyed visiting and spending time in Alaska, Oregon, and South Africa; and going on many other adventures together.

After his retirement, they thoroughly enjoyed a second home in Washington, Utah, where they had the time of their lives with cherished friends and neighbors over 26 years in Southern Utah. In 2006, they sold the farm in West Mountain, and bought a home in Payson, where they met new dear friends, while continuing to go to sunny St. George during the wintertime. In 2018, they moved full time to St. George to a beautiful new home, where Delos and Alene enjoyed the remainder of his wonderful life.

A funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, February 12, 2022, at Highline Ward Church, 586 West 1750 South, Payson, Utah. Visitation will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the church prior to the service. Interment will be in Payson City Cemetery, 400 North 800 East, Payson, Utah 84651.

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5 Condolences for Delos Alfred Tanner

Condolences(5)

Karla Dye says

February 12, 2022 at 5:14 am

My name is Karla Schramm Dye. I have many fond memories of Delos. He drove me to school for all of my school years (except Kindergarten). I remember on the last day of school he would bring a bucket of water and we would have a water fight on the way home.
Besides school he drove me to countless dances and on numerous field trips. Whenever we had to take a trip requiring a bus driver we always requested him.
Other times he would stop by our house after he had finished his route, and talk with my dad. While they were talking he would let us clean the bus and any money we found we could keep.
Dad and Delos were good friends and I remember going to visit him and his family in their home and playing pool on the pool table downstairs and learning to walk on stilts.
I am grateful I was able to know this kind man, and his family!

Julie Couchis Lindstrom says

February 12, 2022 at 2:29 pm

Melissa, Alene, and the Tanner family,
My heart is with you today as you celebrate the life and lay to rest your sweet Delos.
Anyone who had the honor and privilege to know Delos was so blessed! He brought so much joy and lots of laughter to us all!
I remember driving his boat out on Utah Lake as a small child and riding his bus during my elementary years. So many stories of those days with him!
I’ll never forget the day he saved my grandpa’s life out on the farm in West Mountain. Delos was our family’s Hero! He will always hold a very special place in our hearts!
Sending all the peace, light, comfort, and love your beautiful hearts can hold. This world was a better place with Delos and heaven welcomes one of the best!
Til we meet again Hero!
With love,

Heidi Schramm Kramer says

February 13, 2022 at 3:21 am

Delos was the best. Michelle Carlisle was always jealous that Delos was my bus driver (mostly because Delos tuned to a popular radio station and Carl Nelson would sing on his bus. lol). Great memories of Delos and his family.
I am truly sorry for your loss.

lanie lambert says

March 6, 2022 at 6:15 am

my sweet grandpa i can’t even describe, on how much i already miss you! thank you for loving me for the last 18 years and watching me grow up! i love you so much and will see you again! this past month after losing you has been a lot harder since i won’t see your sweet face again! i will make sure to give grandma hugs and the love she needs! since you won’t be there to love and kiss her like you used to! i love you and will see you again! rest easy!!

T. F. says

May 30, 2022 at 3:05 am

My condolences to the entire Tanner family.

I have a picture of myself at the age of 4 years old being comforted by my mom. I am sobbing. In the background, my older siblings are boarding the school bus, 80-H, and there’s Delos waiting with his hand on the door handle waiting to close it.

He drove the bus my entire school career. Almost. One of those pieces that became relied upon in my life. A fixture, if you will.

When he retired, my world experienced one of those uncomfortable shifts that something had changed and I wouldn’t ever be able to get it back.

What you have written here in his obituary was not my experience riding his bus. Although I did ride toward the end of his career. Delos was strict. He didn’t tolerate people messing around on his bus.

If someone got out of hand—and we absolutely did!!—he would turn around and yell at you to come sit in the front seat. And that’s where you sat for a couple of weeks or so depending on the severity of what you did.

As a child, I thought this was mean. As an adult, I have tremendous respect for the incredible patience Delos showed toward us. He seemed to know when to step in with impeccable timing. I think because he really cared.

That doesn’t mean he never smiled. That we all knew he had a gold tooth means he smiled plenty. It’s also very strange seeing a picture of him without his hat. It, too, was a fixture.

In one instance, a boy my age kept causing a lot of trouble. He eventually got kicked off the bus (not too far from his house). That meant he had to ride in the front seat for the rest of the year.

Eventually Delos and this boy became friends. They would chat the entire ride. This boy began choosing to sit in the front seat. Delos would let him tune the radio to whatever station he wanted. Happened to be death metal which wasn’t my thing.

But I wonder if Delos hadn’t kicked him off that day or taken an interest in him what would have happened to him? Like so many others in my class he’d have just slumped off somewhere. Instead, he had a friend.

I always felt great pride riding Delos’s bus. Not only because he played our stations but he really cared. Enough to set us straight. I always kind of pitied 80-F riders. I mean it initially looked fun but after awhile the chaos got really old. So, yes, I felt great pride that we were a much better bus than 80-F.

And that’s my point. Delos took pride in his job. And that meant we could feel secure and take pride in ourselves, too.

That meant a lot. A whole more than a party bus ever would have. When you’re the kid coming off the farm in your wholesome but unfashionable clothes and you’ve been given a reason to feel pride in yourself about something—anything really—even if it is something as simple as being an orderly bus rider you’d been given an advantage that meant you could now step into foreign uptown territory with confidence.

We had hard work and humility on our side.

And I look at my children and wonder how far will any of these influences from my childhood flow? And that is the power of being an impactful influence on a child. You can’t ever tell. And I’m just one of a hundred or so who spent hours and hours riding that bus. We each have our story. And each were, for a time, impacted by Delos’s influence.

May he Rest In Peace