Lois Carolyn Madsen Robertson June 13, 1930 - December 26, 2023

Lois Carolyn Madsen Robertson, beloved mother and wife, passed away peacefully and without warning during her sleep Christmas night the 26^th of December 2023. She was still living in her Spanish Fork home and had welcomed visiting children and grandchildren on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. She will forever be missed, as her tender ministrations to her loved ones continued uninterrupted until the night she slipped away so quietly.

She was born in Fairview Utah, the first of Albert and Ellis Tucker Madsen’s seven children, arriving at their home on Friday the 13^th in June 1930. From then on, every Friday the 13^th was her lucky day.

She enjoyed a happy childhood in her parents’ self-reliant farming home, hardly aware of the Great Depression.  Carolyn’s mother was a cheerful soul who filled the house with her singing, and the family often gathered around the piano to sing together. The love of music seeped into Carolyn’s very bones and became central to her manner of expression.

The Madsen boys helped their father on the farm while Carolyn and her sisters worked with their mother in the home. Carolyn confessed that she could easily become distracted and fall into reading while dusting the books, but her mother’s training developed within her lifelong habits of self-sufficiency and industry. During her senior year of high school, Carolyn won a regional typing contest and was elected the stake Gleaners’ president and student body vice president. She especially loved choir, physiology, and her English classes. She was blessed with wonderful friends. She graduated with honors from North Sanpete High School.

She attended Brigham Young University, majoring in Elementary Education. She studied vocal performance with Dr. Halliday and performed in both the Madrigal and the A Cappella Choirs. Dr. Halliday told her that hers was one of the finest voices at the university at that time. Between classes, she worked as a custodian, as a typist and at the BYU Photo Studio.  She also worked at Zion’s National Park for several summers, where she read the book Cheaper by the Dozen, and began to dream of raising twelve children of her own.

In the photo studio she met Don Robertson, who was impressed with her beauty and her smile. After a wonderful courtship, they married on Friday the 13^th of July, 1951 in the Manti Utah Temple. Don and Carolyn’s first baby arrived the day her class graduated from BYU. This was the only graduation she missed during her college years, since she had sung with her BYU choirs at every graduation.

Carolyn and Don attended dental school in Chicago, living in a public housing project in a slum area, but with fond memories of Tony ‘s vegetable truck, of orange crates for furniture, and of the good times they shared with other dental school couples, who became lifelong friends.

Afterward, they returned to Spanish Fork where Don began to build his dental practice.  Carolyn supported Don in his callings and activities and continued to develop in her music throughout the years, singing solos and in ward and stake choirs, which she often conducted.  She sang lullabies to her babies every night possible for 22 years. She loved working with the Young Women in her church callings. She served as Provo District Dental Auxiliary President and was active in her women’s club and later, Daughters of Utah Pioneers. She and Don loved mixing with friends in their Camera and Gizmo Clubs

Don shared Carolyn’s dream and in time they welcomed twelve children, with a 21 year span between the births of their first and last. She was a cheerful, organized, and efficient mother, caring for her large vegetable garden, canning produce, preparing delicious meals, sewing her children’s clothing, and providing opportunities for them to develop their talents.

She encouraged her children to read. Because she thirsted for knowledge, she gathered college reading lists of great books and read them one at a time, constantly challenging her intellect and stimulating her thoughts. This continued until the end of her life, as her children would bring her stacks of histories, biographies, and literature, which she would devour before returning.

Her life and the lives of her children were punctuated by trials but she consistently bounced back from such times with a profound and faith-filled resilience and was ever a steadfast friend to all of her posterity, who truly rise up and call her blessed.

Her greatest achievement of all was teaching her children the truths of the gospel of Christ’s restored Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Every day she studied her scriptures and “Come Follow Me” until the night of her passing. She prayed to the Lord as if she were sitting at His feet. These devotional habits of an entire lifetime established within her a high mindedness which illuminated her mind, her habits, and her home.

Carolyn often quoted the following poem, which beautifully represents the manner in which she poured her sacrifices and longings into the intentional creativity of her motherhood:

My Masterpiece
by Elsie C. Carroll

Often there comes to me stealing
Sweet visions of consummate art
A statue, a picture, a poem
And there awakens in my heart

A longing to carve the fair image,
To color the picture sublime,
To write for the world the sweet poem –
To create a great masterpiece – mine.

But just as I reach for my chisel,
Or canvas and brush, or my pen,
And open the door to fancy,
I’m brought to the present again.

An echoing laugh may recall me,
A shrill cry of pain or of fear,
A small grimy hand on my elbow,
A sweet whispered word in my ear.

And away go my visions a-winging
Back to the fount whence they came,
Before me untouched is my marble,
My canvas – white; song, but a name!

I turn to the needs of my babies
And gazing into their eyes
I thrill with this sense of contentment:
In their future, my masterpiece lies.

Family Who Went Before

Carolyn is predeceased by her husband Don Shurtleff Robertson, parents Albert and Ellis Madsen, her sister Barbara  Hamilton(Larkin), her brother Bryant Madsen (Priscilla) , her daughter-in-law Janette Hallam Robertson (Vic), grandsons Nathan Morin and Jacob Robertson, and granddaughter Kirstin Robertson.

Family Left Behind

She is survived by her brother Gail Madsen (Laurel), sisters Jean Wheeler (Earl) and Oneita Faatz (Gary), and brother Blake Madsen (Terry). She is also survivied by her and Don’s twelve children, their spouses, 54 grandchildren, and 101 great-grandchildren. Her twelve children include: Steven Robertson (Ina), Theresa Thomas (Michael), Lorraine Morin (Ed), Victor Robertson (Jackie), Wendell Robertson (Darlene), Carl Robertson (LeaMarie), Ruth Ann Williams (Scott), George Robertson, Donna Terry (Scott), Michael Robertson (Kristy), Philip Robertson, Sally Jensen (Steve).

A viewing will be held on Friday evening, January 5, 2023; 6-8 pm at Walker Funeral Home, 187 North Main, Spanish Fork, Utah.

Another viewing, prior to the funeral, will be on Saturday morning, January 6, 2023; 9:30 am – 10:30 am at  the First Ward meetinghouse, 310 East Center, Spanish Fork. The funeral will follow in the chapel at 11:00 am.

Interment at Spanish Fork Cemetery, 420 S 400 E, Spanish Fork, Utah 84660.