Julianne Steed White

 Our beloved Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Gigi, Sister and Friend, Julianne Steed White, 76, went to join her sweetheart, Walt White, on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at her home in Nampa, Idaho, surrounded by her family after a hard fought seven year battle with Multiple Myeloma.

Julianne was born on July 30, 1946 in Logan, Utah to Rulon James and Genevieve Leona Stewart Steed. She loved her life on the Island, ice skating at the park across the street that was flooded every winter, pulling pranks on her brother, Marlin, spending time with her many friends, singing in various choirs all over the valley with her angelic voice. She was the original Dancing Queen. From an early age, she started a life of service by helping her parents run their family business, Steed's Dairy. She had many wonderful memories working side by side with her family and friends in Steed’s Dairy Bar, the favorite local hangout after Aggie ball games.

One bright summer day she was sunbathing at a friend’s house. She had gone inside and the phone rang. When she answered it, Walt (who lived next door) was calling and telling her to get back outside because he was enjoying the show! Thus began their life long love filled with joy, laughter, and never ending service.

She married Walt in the Logan LDS Temple on June 10,1966. The lived in Logan while Walt was finishing his schooling in Speech Pathology and Audiology. Their daughter Sharlyn was born six weeks before they moved to Gooding, Idaho in 1968 for Walt to begin his career at the Idaho State School for the Deaf and the Blind. Matthew, Rebecca and Amanda were born after they moved to Idaho, and Julianne was the most magnificent mother. Nothing got in the way of her devotion to her family.

We have so many beautiful memories of our Mom. She was the consummate neighborhood Mom, because she loved her children’s friends as her own, and everyone knew it. She was Scout camp Mom at Camp Bradley every summer, taking care of homesick boys and always looking out for anyone who needed a little extra love.

Once all of her children were in school, she began her career taking care of children with special needs at Green Acres Care Center. After several years, she transferred to ISDB, working with deaf/hard of hearing and blind/low vision children in their cottage life program. She loved providing a second home for her kids, and her cottage was the cleanest on campus. She never left a job undone, and her commitment to perfection was legendary.

Mom loved music. We all have fond memories of going to concerts with her-everything from Rachmaninoff Symphonies to Andrea Bocelli to Bon Jovi and Def Leppard. She loved to dance and taught her granddaughters to salsa dance and sing along with Frank Sinatra. We all looked forward to the annual phone call when she’d sing happy birthday, because she never forgot a birthday. Her effervescent joy was contagious. She brought color to the world.

Her home was a happy one, because she was in it. She took great pleasure in keeping things clean, organized, and well stocked. Her home was a well oiled machine. If you needed it, she had it. She joked that she had the gift of doing laundry, and no one could do it like she could.

She nurtured everyone, from family and friends to complete strangers. She perfected the gift of noticing-she knew when someone was in trouble or needed help, and she got to work. As her illness progressed, one of the things that bothered her the most was her inability to physically serve others, but she still found ways to help in quiet and beautiful ways. Everyone who knew her is better for it.

Her example of courage in the face of adversity was unequalled. She was Dad’s dialysis nurse for 7 years, five days a week, 52 weeks a year. She wasn’t a nurse by training, but her attention to detail and dedication to her task kept him healthy and with us much longer than he would have been otherwise. Her motto “You don’t have to want to do it, you just have to do it” perfectly described how she lived her life. She said a prayer for strength and got to work.

Mom had a very deep rooted and simple faith in Christ and never wavered in her belief. She loved the scriptures and based her life on doing those things that would please her Heavenly Father. She had tiny hands but they were always doing her Savior’s work. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.”

 She is survived by her children, Sharlyn (Tom) Jackson of Gooding, Idaho, Matt (Cari) White of Hyrum, Utah, Becky (Andy) Jensen of Meridian, Idaho, and Amanda (Jade) Barton of Nampa, Idaho, her brother Marlin (LaVon) Steed, sister Cherryle Orrock, and grandchildren Rachel, Genevieve and Bailey Jackson, Abigail, Alec and Charlotte (Tater) White, Leah (John) Zacharias and Zachary Jensen, and Justin, Kaetyn, and Emma Barton, and one great grandson, Linden Jackson.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Rulon and Genevieve, Husband Walt, Sister Camille Steed Zahmel and brothers Linden and Rulon James Steed Jr.

Following her wishes, a private family memorial will be held in Logan, where she will be buried next to her husband in the Logan Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made in her name to the service/humanitarian organization of your choice.

We love you so much Mom. God be with you til we meet again.

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