Loila Rae Funk Anderson

Loila Rae Funk Anderson, age 100, of Logan, Utah, died September 6, 2026, of complications attendant to age. At the time of her passing she was residing at the Highland Glen Care Center in Highland, Utah. She is survived by her children and their spouses: Douglas (Katherine Wirthlin Cannon Anderson), Rae Louise (Steve Theurer), Mondell (June Harris Anderson), Janis (Steve Russell), Julie Merrill Anderson, the widow of her son, Lyle Funk Anderson, and 29 grandchildren, 56 great grandchildren, and 1 great/great grandson.

Loila Funk was born January 12, 1926, to Walter Angus Funk and Sarah Loila Reese Funk, of Benson, Cache County, Utah. She was the fourth of five children in the family. The Funk’s (from Bornholm, Denmark) and the Reese’s (from Wales, UK) were among the first pioneer settlers of Cache Valley. Her father, Angus (as he was known), like his ancestors from Denmark, was a dairyman. To supplement the family income, he worked with heavy machinery building the roads of the Intermountain West. Her mother, Sarah, was an early graduate of Brigham Young Academy in Logan, and taught school in a two room schoolhouse in Benson before she was married.

From her parents and her siblings, Loila learned to work hard, and to build strong family and community relationships. She especially enjoyed working in the fields and gardens of the farm with her younger brother, Dennis. She would also milk the cows when her father was off working on the roads. She didn’t mind the work, but she was a little self-conscious when going to North Cache High School, after the morning’s chores. She remembers her mother’s kindness to native Americans, who would sometimes stop by the farm in search of food—although as a small child she and her older sister, Viva, would sometimes hide in the bedroom closet while her mother served the native Shoshone people. She loved to ride her pony, Peanuts, around the farm. Hers was a life of love, neighborly kindness, faith, strong family bonds, and service.

She drew on these qualities to meet the greatest test of her young life, when her beloved brother, Norman, was killed in action in Germany, a few months before the end of World War II.

Following the example of her mother, Loila attended college in Logan. She graduated from the College of Education at Utah State Agricultural College in 1948 (later USU) and became an elementary school teacher. At Utah State she loved and was beloved by her sisters in Kappa Delta Sorority, and served as their president. In 1947 she was selected Queen of the University Prom (Centennial Ball). She taught school in Millville and Mendon and later in California.

On August 10, 1948 she married classmate and USU student body president, Desmond Launfal Anderson, of Logan. Together they moved to California where Desmond would study for a doctorate in public administration at the University of Southern California. After completing his degree, and joining the USC faculty, Desmond and Loila bought a home in the foothills of Altadena, where they raised their five children until 1968, when Desmond accepted a three-year assignment with the US Agency for International Development in South Vietnam. Because he was going to a war zone, the couple, who always referred to Cache Valley as “home,” decided it was time to move the family back to Logan.

With Desmond overseas, Loila supervised the completion of their new home on Logan’s “Island,” at corner of 1st South and 3rd East, where she lived until she was 99 years old. Her roommates in later years were her granddaughter, Michelle Theurer, her son, Douglas, and during Covid, her daughter, Rae Louise, and son-in-law, Steve Theurer. Her son, Lyle, preceded her in death from colon cancer on May 15, 1997, having just turned 46. Desmond, who would serve a distinguished term as Mayor of Logan, died on January 19, 2010, at age 86.

Loila loved serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in many callings, but particularly as Pasadena Stake Primary President (she reported to Stake President Howard W. Hunter), twice as the Mount Logan Stake Relief

Society President, and in the Logan Temple. For ten years after her youngest, Janis, left home she was a beloved 3rd grade teacher at the Wilson School in Logan, a short walk from her home.

Her greatest classroom, however, was in her home and her most appreciative students were her children and her numerous posterity of grandchildren, in laws, and as she would say, “outlaws.’ Every one of them has felt the divine in her loving presence and smiling eyes, and in her constant admonition to “remember who you are, and who you represent. We love you, mother. 

Memories and condolences may be shared and expressed at www.allenmortuaries.com.