Lillie Belle (Johnson) Anderton passed away peacefully at home with loved ones on May 12, 2026, in Midvale, Utah. Lillie was 90 years old, born September 6, 1935, in Swan Lake Idaho. She was the first child and born on her mother’s birthday. She came into the world giving her mother a challenging birth. Her father placed her in a shoebox thinking the blue baby was dead, but she had a strong will to live that carried her through life. Lillie was named after her two grandmothers, Lillie (Allen) Johnson and Lillie (Fischer) Hadley and she was given her mother’s middle name and was often called by her full name “Lillie Belle”.

Her father, Booker Elmo Johnson and mother, Rose Belle (Hadley) Johnson had three other children, Connie Ardella Alstrup, Booker Earl Johnson (deceased), and Larry Johnson. Lillie grew up in Murray Utah where her parents had a large farm, orchard, and nursery. She had many friends and maintained a very long sweet friendship with Kimio Kunitake who lives in California. Lillie went to Woodstock Elementary, Olympus Junior High School, Granite High School, and graduated from the first class of Olympus High School in 1954. During school days, she won many blue ribbons in home economics. She was an active member of the LDS church.

Some of her favorite childhood memories included visiting her Grandmother Johnson who owned a now historic hotel in Logan Utah. She also enjoyed spending time with her Grandpa Hadley and Step-grandma Hadley, Ercil, on their farm in Logan where she remembered eating snacks of potatoes out of the garden with them. Lillie was very beautiful and had black hair and big blue eyes and a sun-kissed complexion. She maintained that dark hair and beautiful skin until she passed.

Lillie was a hard worker and grew up taking on house cleaning jobs, farming jobs with neighbors, and working on her Aunt Bonnie’s and Uncle Snyd’s mink farm in Taylorsville. Salt Lake City was still developing when she grew up and her family finally got an indoor toilet when they built their lovely home in the 1950s. She has fond memories of sleepovers at the Wheeler Farm where friends lived. Later she became a great baker working at Jacobsen’s Bakery. She was very talented and earned several scholarships, learned to play the violin, cello, and accordian. She said she once aspired to be an opera singer. She had a wonderful collection of records that she let her children play with later. Her favorite artists were greats, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney, Fats Domino, and many others classical records included Ravel and Mozart. and Andrea Bocelli She had some eclectic records from Bosso Nova and Tijuana Brass. Her love for music continued on and later in life she studied the piano and loved disco and ABBA and many others.

Lillie graduated with an Associate’s Degree from LDS Business School. Later, in her 40’s she received a non-traditional scholarship to study Sociology at the University of Utah. She was a straight A student and loved her college life.

Lillie married Evan Anderton (later divorced) and had three girls, Sandra Assasnik, Kimberlee Eberspacher (Danny), and Holli McReynolds (Aaron). That is not where it stopped though—she was a mom to Nord Curtis Anderton, Brittany Morton Moore, Charlotte Bekis, Donna Mae Burbank, and Bekhy Zenger as well as countless foster children, neighborhood kids, and grandchildren’s friends. Way too many to be named, but believe me, you are in her heart always. She enjoyed watching her grandchildren Amir Alexander, Nushean, Dustin, Michael, Heather, Easton, James, Charise, David, Dineh, and collected other grandchildren along the way, including Evalee Anderton and Brianna Moore. Everyone called her “Grandma”. Lillie was also blessed to have many great-grand children.

Lillie was an amazing mom. Her children enjoyed home-made bread, cookies, cakes, meat loafs, custards, salmon, and spoiled everyone with all kinds of treats. She was very active in her children’s lives—President of the Holladay Elementary School PTA, making sure they did their homework, staying up late helping with school reports, and exposing them to dance and art. Christmas was her favorite holiday and she spent all year getting ready for the big event! She collected every type of Santa Claus imaginable and decorated the house from top to bottom with homemade ginger bread houses, several Christmas trees, ceramic figurines, and Christmas socks that she sewed by hand with beads and sequins. She spoiled her kids and grandkids with an over abundance of gifts. She enjoyed all the other holidays too. For Easter she made crystalized sugar scenic eggs, decorating colored eggs with family, loading up Easter baskets with a year’s worth of chocolate, and sewing Easter dresses. For Halloween she made all kinds of Halloween costumes. One year she made paper mache body costumes for her girls and often made hand-made Halloween cards for everyone. Lillie Belle was the mom that everyone needs to create a magical childhood experience.

Arts and crafts also played a huge part in Lillie’s life. She was an active member of the Utah Art Association and displayed her and her family’s work across the state in different shows. She made beautiful Christmas wreaths--wreaths that people ordered months in advance for the holidays. She made 3-D plaques of Holly Hobby figures, painted primitive art, and became a great Japanese-ink painter as well as enjoying calligraphy. She was always crafty—sharing her interests with ALL her children and ALL her grandchildren. She was perpetually making scrap books and cards. Lillie loved to play games, read, and enjoyed some favorite shows on PBS. She was also a bowling champion at Cottonwood Lanes and encouraged kids and grandkids to enjoy the hobby. She watched her grandkids participate in football, soccer, dance, T-ball, baseball, swimming and other childhood events.

Mom loved gardening from being raised on a nursery and could name every plant, tree and bush. She worked for decades at her parent’s business, Johnson’s Nursery, until it closed. She also enjoyed working for Feature Films for Families and some of her grandchildren were even in the company’s movies! She was the Avon Lady and Tupperware Lady for the neighborhood. She always had beautiful flowers growing in the yard. She was a great homemaker, refinishing furniture, sewing clothes, and always doing for others. She was generous and kind—and extended love and comfort to everyone around her. Lillie’s children grew up with pets, but later in life, she had her own special experiences with her doggies Abby and Chuck. Family requests that in lieu of flowers that a donation be made in her name to the Humane Society of Utah:

https://donate.utahhumane.org/campaign/687674/donate?c_src=25WIDGET&c_src2=fy25-widget&utm_source=25WIDGET

Lillie Belle supported everyone, mentally, spiritually, and at times financially even though she had a meager income. She wanted to make sure everyone was happy and enjoying their lives.

Please share your memories or photos at: https://jenkins-soffe.com/obituaries/lillie-anderton

She will be interred at the Memorial Holladay Cemetery at 4900 So. Memory Lane, UT 84117 on May 18th at 6:00 PM (mountain time) with a fond farewell that friends and family are invited to. You can bring a flower or note to share in her burial. Zoom will be available for those who cannot attend in person. To be included, please email assasnik@yahoo.com or text to 503.526.2016 to be added to the invitation list. A celebration of her life will be held in the near future. Everyone is welcome to participate by recording a fond memory (video or voice), or sharing an email, note or photos. This will be an online event. Please call or text 503.526.2016 or email assasnik@yahoo.com for an invite.

See you later mom.

You are the best mom ever.