Elaine Liddell

July 25, 1946 ~ June 14, 2019
Elaine Smith was born July 25, 1946 at the Salina, UT Hospital to Evan John Smith and Shirley Arkin Smith. She was welcomed by her older sister, Sharon, to the family home in Redmond, UT.
They lived in a log cabin that was once the first church building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Redmond, UT.
She had a happy childhood running with her sister and cousins.
When Elaine was a toddler, she almost lost her life when she was kicked in the head by a plow horse brought in from the field. After that, she was pampered a lot.
Then the family moved to Salina where Evan had a job repairing and painting vehicles. Elaine attended Salina Elementary and later North Sevier High.
After graduation, she married Stanley Winn and moved to Colorado and then Iowa. Out of this marriage came a baby boy, James Grant Winn. This marriage ended in divorce, and Elaine returned to Utah.
She attended Evans School of Beauty in Richfield and earned a Cosmetology license. She ended up leaving the home for the big world of Blanding to join her sister, Sharon, who introduced her to Clea Johnson. Clea hired her to work in the Stylette Beauty Shop.
When her furnace in the rental didn’t work on cold nights, she met Bo Montella (the Blanding gas fix-it-man). They began dating, and after three years, got married.
From this marriage came a precious little girl, Brenda. Brenda was a special child with blindness and Cerebral Palsy handicaps.
Elaine continued to run her own beauty shop at home so she could tend Brenda. Later, Brenda went to school and this gave Elaine time to study to become an E.M.T.
She ran on the Blanding Ambulance and advanced to an intermediate level, then did flights for Scenic Aviation Air Ambulance. This led to doing Licensed Practical Nurse School and then a degree as a Registered Nurse.
Elaine worked nights at the nursing home across the street from the Montella home until Bo got Pancreatic Cancer, and she opted to care for his needs. After Bo died, she continued to work at the nursing home and had Brenda there as a patient.
Bo and Elaine were married for 27 years. Brenda died several years later.
Elaine joined Sharon as a nurse for the Red Cross at a shelter in Florida after three hurricanes left many people homeless.
Just prior to her Red Cross work, she met Jerry Liddell on the internet site, LDS Planet. Their relationship became serious and they talked daily on the cell phone while she was with the Red Cross.
After returning home, they met and started dating. He soon swept her off her feet, and they were married by San Juan County Clerk Norman Johnson. Johnson looked up and said to Jerry, “Isn’t this kind of sudden?”
Elaine replied in a show of her typical Smith family humor, “Oh, we’ve got to get married!”
They were later sealed in the Jordan River Temple. They were married for 15 years.
Elaine was diagnosed with Parkinsonism and Lew Body Dimentia in 2011 and Jerry retired, becoming her caregiver.
March 22, 2019 Elaine fell and broke her right femur just below the hip. She miraculously learned how to walk again after returning home but kept getting increased debilitation of muscles, quit eating enough calories to sustain life, and lost much weight.
During most of this time Elaine was a home care and finally a hospice patient. She passed away on June 14, 2019.
Elaine was preceded in death by her grandparents, Louis and Yetta Arkin and Christian and Hulda Smith; parents, Evan and Shirley Smith; husband, Frank A. Montella Sr.; and daughter, Brenda Montella.
She is survived by her husband, Jerry Liddell; son and daughter-in-law, James Grant Montella and Stacy Patterson Montella; grandson, Asheton D. Montella, his wife Shayli Montella, and first great-grandchild due in November; granddaughter, Shailynn Montella; sister, Sharon L. Smith; and her two cats, Rusty and Pretty Kitty.

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