Anna Loye Van Wagoner Vance passed away peacefully in Draper, Utah, surrounded by family on August 28, 2024. She was 86 years old.

Anna Loye was born May 29, 1938 in Heber City, Utah, as the only child of Orah May Giles and Albert Van Wagoner. Albert and Orah married later in life when Albert was a widower with four daughters; Maxine, Alberta, Anita, and Shirley (ages 20 down to 8 years of age). Anna Loye lived in Lehi, Utah as a small child before moving to Provo, Utah to a home across the street from the original Maeser Elementary School. Anna Loye grew up surrounded by nieces and nephews close in age to her, as well as many aunts, uncles, cousins, and her sisters’ families. Anna Loye had a special relationship with her “Cute Grandpa” Giles.

Anna Loye was blessed with a beautiful singing voice. At around six years old, she sang a solo during Stake Conference in the then Provo Tabernacle (now the Provo City Center Temple). In junior high and high school she sang in a “double trio” with friends, known as “the gang” from elementary school. They performed as an a cappella sextet. She remained lifelong friends with these five girls.

After graduating from Provo High School in 1956, Anna Loye took some classes at BYU. At age 19, she decided to go to Los Angeles, California and get a job for the summer of 1957. She worked in a typing pool. It was at a church young adult activity in East Los Angeles where she first met the love of her life, Ronald Vance. He quickly scheduled all of her social calendar and even followed Anna Loye back to Provo at the end of the summer. Together they attended “the Y” in the fall. Anna Loye and Ron were married and sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple on April 3, 1958.

After marriage, Anna Loye and Ron moved back to Los Angeles where Ron found a good job. Soon their family was blessed with children. Over the next 22 years, seven children joined their family: Kevin (1958), Vicki (1960), John (1961), Steven (1964), Melvin (1966), Brian (1974), and Melanie (1980). They also moved from Los Angeles to Brigham City, UT to San Jose, CA to Campbell, CA to Rochester, MN and back to Los Gatos, CA. After a brief move to the Seattle area when Ron retired, the Vance family came back to Utah and settled in Sandy. Anna Loye loved being a wife and mother and she also enjoyed surrounding herself with family and friends wherever they lived.

Anna Loye was incredibly sweet and kind. She was known for her laughter and witty humor. She liked planning get-togethers, picnics, parties, and camping trips. She enjoyed preparing big meals and treats to feed the large groups that often gathered in her home. Anna Loye was a genuine gatherer. She collected friends and recipes and was often surrounded by good food, extended family, friends, and neighbors.

Anna Loye was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She loved her Savior, Jesus Christ, she was an example of the believers, and had an abiding testimony of the restored gospel. Anna Loye served faithfully in many callings including: Primary President, Relief Society President, and in the Stake Primary and Young Women’s presidencies. Anna Loye and Ron served as full-time senior missionaries in the Utah South Salt Lake Mission Office from August 2002 to June 2004. She greatly enjoyed giving of her time with Ron and the young missionaries serving 96 stakes in the Salt Lake Valley. All 5 of her sons served full-time missions. Anna Loye and Ron also served as welfare specialists at the church cannery. Anna Loye took preparedness and having a food supply to an enhanced level and was always happy to share her knowledge with others.

Anna Loye’s grandchildren remember making cookies with her, riding in the van, movie nights with buttered popcorn, sleepovers with waffles and smoothies for breakfast, and going on adventures to see temples, candy factories, or beautiful spots in nature.

Anna Loye loved gathering family together, the color blue, flowers, good jokes, funny stories, laughter, playing the piano, new recipes, singing nursery rhymes, making new friends, slapstick comedy movies, spoon tacos, gritty crime dramas, and being a daughter, sister, aunt, wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother.

Anna Loye left a legacy of love and gathering to her posterity who love her dearly. She is survived by 6 of her children and their spouses: Kevin (Wendy) Vance, Alain Jensen, John (Vicki) Vance, Steven (Amey) Vance, Melvin (Peggy) Vance, Brian (Kim) Vance, and Melanie Vance, 22 grandchildren, and 17 great-grandchildren. Anna Loye is preceded in death by her husband of 64 years, Ronald Vance (passed June 2022) her daughter, Vicki Vance Jensen (passed November 2021), her parents, Albert and Orah Van Wagoner, and her sisters and brother in-laws, Maxine (Keith) Powell, Alberta (Jeff) Eastmond, Anita (Bliss) Fitzgerald, and Shirley (Ray) Dunn, and many other loved ones.

Memorial services to celebrate a life well lived will be held Saturday, September 14, 2024 at 10:30 a.m. at the Pinecrest Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located at 2080 East Pinecrest Lane in Sandy, Utah. A viewing will be held at this location on Friday, September 13, 2024 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. in the Relief Society Room. Another viewing will be held Saturday morning from 9:00-10:00 a.m. in the same location.

For those unable to attend the service in person, the family invites you to join via zoom at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84859390104

(A free zoom account is required and you will need to sign in to join the service.) Condolences and flowers may be sent to Larkin Sunset Gardens, 1950 E. Dimple Dell Road, Sandy, Utah 84092.

Anna Loye’s family would like to thank the staff and all of Anna Loye’s friends at Spring Gardens Assisted Living in Draper for the care and love they gave Anna Loye the past two years.

Anna Loye will be interred in a family plot in the Midway City Cemetery in Midway, Utah. Anna Loye is loved “a bushel and a peck,” “to the moon and back,” and “now and forever!” We know she is still surrounded by family and friends. We miss her already!