Norine Butler Allen was born on June 2, 1927, to Marion Wallace Butler and Ethel Eliza Jackson Butler in their farm home in Driggs, Idaho, under the beautiful Tetons. She was the seventh of eight children: Cloris, Zelta, Lora, Myra, Troy, Jay Dell, and Bernell (all deceased). She passed away on March 4, 2024, at age 96.
Funeral services will be held March 15, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. in the Mt. Logan Stake Center, 565 E. 100 S. in Logan. There will be a viewing Thursday evening from 6-8 p.m. at the Allen-Hall Mortuary and on Friday from 9:30-10:30 a.m. at the church. Burial will follow in the Hyrum City Cemetery. Condolences and memories may be expressed online at www.allenmortuaries.net.
At 11 months, Norine put her hands on a hot oven door that was standing open to cool after baking bread. Doctors were unable to do anything to heal the deep scars. Even attempts at skin grafts in a Boise hospital were ineffective. Through the years, her father would rub Norine’s scarred hands at night with olive oil. This injury gave her challenges as her reach, five notes on the piano, was very limited.
In the cold of Teton Valley winters, Norine rode to school through deep snow in a horse-drawn sleigh, and she and other children sat inside boxes to try to stay warm. She thrived in music under the tutelage of a favorite teacher, Prof Murdock, and learned to play several instruments: baritone, cello, and piano, and that was just in grade school. She also learned the tenor sax–whatever Prof needed for his band, she learned. She participated in music and drama and had one of the lead roles in the school operetta, “Jerry of Jericho Road.” Her mother, Ethel, sewed her a beautiful costume lined with fringe for her role as the singing cowgirl.
Norine and her friends performed musical comedy skits and songs at frequent ward get-togethers at churches throughout the valley. She had a great time and danced mostly with her favorite dance partner, her brother, Jay Dell.
She attended BYU, where she was praised by Gerrit de Jong, Dean of Music, for her unusually beautiful tone on the baritone and promised if she returned the second year, she would be one of their soloists. Instead, she decided to attend Ricks College, where she graduated, and then taught first and second grades in Firth, Idaho. She also taught music to all the grades from first through eighth grade. After that, she taught first grade in Driggs for a year.
Norine served an LDS mission in the Northern California mission from June 1949 to December 1950. Norine loved the mission, and her children and grandchildren grew up listening to her stories that were not only inspiring, but also that brought smiles and laughter. On her mission, she met Elder Robert G. Allen. After their missions they dated and later married in the Logan Temple on May 25, 1951.
Robert and Norine had 9 children. Gae Lyn (Harold) Henderson, Lee Ann (Samuel) Lindsey, Robert Dean/Bobbie, Janene (Kenyon) Hart, June (died at birth), Marjorie (Darin) Emch, Mary Jo (Richard) Elmer, Teri Sue (Michael) Abramson, and Richard Wray (died in 2014). Robert and Norine have 39 grandchildren, 74 great grandchildren, and 1 great-great grandchild.
They made their first home in Hyrum on Main Street. Robert was a farmer and frequently traveled to Hansel Valley, Strevell, and later to Blue Creek. Wherever Norine lived, in town or on the farm, she grew a large garden. The job was a hard one with rocks by the thousands, weeds, and even snakes, but she persevered and recruited her children and grandchildren to help. The harvest was always plentiful with green beans, peas, squash, corn, tomatoes, raspberries, apples, and cherries, and was shared with family and friends or preserved for the future.
They lived for several years in Hyrum, briefly in Tremonton, and then settled in Logan. Robert built the current home on the Island where she has lived over 55 years. Norine and Robert’s home was filled with music, practicing, and preparing programs for church, including funerals and weddings. With her ‘subtle’encouragement, all her children learned to play string instruments and piano.
Another lifelong passion of hers was family history. A room in her house features pedigree ‘wallpaper,’ covering the walls and ceilings. She served as missionary in the Family History Center in the Logan Tabernacle for 15 years, teaching people to find their ancestors. One day at the library, she was inspired to research histories of immigrant ancestors which she compiled into a huge book and presented a copy to each of her grandchildren.
Norine was delighted when Robert chose farming as an occupation as she grew up on a farm. However she was not so happy being left in town with the children and the garden. So they bought a farm near Strevell, Idaho, with a little house, garden space, and picket fence. During the summers, her children had job charts, music practice, learned to cook, explored, watched porcupines at night, cut paper dolls out of the Sears catalog, did laundry with a wringer washer, helped drive truck in the fields, and there were practically no neighbors. In many ways it was heaven on earth. They came back to town for Church services on Sunday.
A highlight of her life was Church service. In the Hyrum 2nd Ward, she enjoyed serving on the Old Folks Committee, performing music and funny skits. Later, she happily served as Relief Society president, Primary president, music chairman, and more.
Since Robert passed away in 2012, Norine has ‘patiently’ waited to join him while enduring some challenging health conditions. She is fortunate to have several grandchildren/college students who have
lived nearby and helped take care of her and the house. They have mowed grass, moved sprinklers, primed the well, picked apples, shoveled snow, and more.
Over her life, Norine has mothered and grandmothered, taught school and music, researched family history, pulled weeds and canned green beans, shared her testimony, prayed continuously, and loved her family with tenacity and fearlessness. She said in her journal, “There are sweet people, and there are spunky people, and I was not the sweet type.”
We, as her family, honor her and will miss her spunk.
Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at Allen Mortuaries.