Leesa Anderson Obituary
Leesa Johnson Anderson was born on Feb 17, 1958, in Athens, Greece. She was in an orphanage until the age of 18 months when she was adopted by an American couple, Blaine and Cleo Johnson from Ogden UT. She came to the United States weighing only 9 pounds and the trauma from malnourishment followed her for a major portion of her life. She had two brothers who were also adopted; one from Athens, Greece (Keven) and another from Las Vegas, Nevada (Vince). She was a friendly little girl with a cute smile.
As she grew, she showed a talent for music and was highly gifted with the violin and piano. She won competitions and was considered one of the top students in both the violin and piano for the state of Utah. She then went on to receive a scholarship in music at Weber State University.
She has played the organ in the Tabernacle at Temple square for musicals and sang in the Utah Oratorios production of the Messiah for many years. She loved listening to good music and stressed the ability it had to heal. She had callings as ward organist and enjoyed that calling above all others.
In 1978 she married and had her first daughter followed by her only son two years later. In 1981 the marriage ended and she was left with her two small children, Tara and Adam.
She then began working at the LDS Church Office Building as a director's secretary. In 1983 she noticed a lonely looking male at a dance and smiled at him which gave the cowardly man enough courage to ask her for a dance. That relationship bloomed and in September of 1983 Leesa received every girls dream proposal while on the way to Carl's Jr when he asked her "if I were to ask you to marry me, what would you say?". When she said she would say yes, the wonderful fellow said the magic words, "okay lets plan on it.".
Leesa and Ed Anderson were married in the Salt Lake Temple on November 18, 1983 for time and all eternity. As time passed, they were blessed with a daughter Normandie to join their two other children. Leesa was president of the PTA for Welby Elementary School for a year. Over the years, she taught herself to sew and became an extraordinary seamstress.
As time passed, she began to experience health issues; first due to migraines, and then problems rooted in her early childhood in Greece. This began to take a toll on her and through the years restricted her activity and ability to get around. This was particularly hard because she loved things like working in the yard and spending time with her family. As she became restricted in her movements, she found opportunities to interact with people and find new friends through Facebook and Instagram. She became active there and many were blessed by her compassion and humor. Those of you who were blessed to know her were likely to have been the recipients of her silly messages, memes, or photos. She was always trying to brighten others days despite her own struggles.
In early January, she went to the ER for severe abdominal pain and was admitted to LDS Hospital. After one day, she was moved into the ICU. Her condition worsened and on January the 31st she left this earthly existence. She is preceded in death by her father (Blaine), mother (Cleo) and younger brother Vincent.
Leesa is survived by her loving husband Ed, her children Taralee (Steve), Adam (Annette), and Mandie (Burt), her grandchildren Dalton, Devvin, Kaia, Kypris, Conner, Kaysha, Bennett & Kaisley and her brother Keven.
A viewing will be held from 9:30-10:30 am followed by funeral services at 11:00 am at The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located at 9897 South Dunsinane Drive, South Joran, UT 84009 on Monday, February 6, 2023.
Interment will immediately follow at the South Jordan Cemetery.
For friends and family unable to make it to the services, there will be a live streaming at https://www.youtube.com (see link below).
