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KELLY AND CLARISSA SUMMERS FAMILY

The Kelly and Clarisssa Summers Family was created on August 17, 1966 when Elder LeGrande Richard of the Council of Twelve Apostles, in the presence of family and friends, married Clarissa Gertrude Eames (born June 8, 1939, in Preston, Idaho) and Kenneth Kelly Summers (born August 29, 1941, in Moab, Utah) in the Salt Lake Temple for “time and all eternity.” They had met in September of 1965, at the University Ward, a student and singles ward in Berkeley, California, dated during the school year and were engaged on July 4, 1966, on the grounds of the Oakland Temple. Clarissa had graduated from BYU in 1962, with an elementary education major, moved to the Bay Area to be near her parents who resided in Pleasant Hill, California, lived in Berkeley and taught school in Pleasant Hill and Concord, California. She was ward Relief Society President at the time. Kelly graduated from BYU in the spring of 1965 and started law school in September of that year at the University of California, Boalt School of Law. Their first date was to the temple, a Jewish temple of a Jewish conservative congregation in Oakland, with Jewish friends Kelly had met at law school.

Clarissa‘s father, Henry Thomas Eames, was raised in the small southern Idaho town of Elba of pioneer stock. He met Velma Lorene Maddy at Southern Idaho College of Education (the school no longer exists) in Albion, Idaho. Her family was from central Kansas. Her father brought the family to Idaho working on construction projects during the depression. She joined the Church about a year after their marriage and was a faithful saint and church worker all her life. Three events are pivotal concerning the Eames family and the Church:

1. Henry began saving money to buy a fishing boat with his cousin. Velma realized that if he bought the boat, he could spend Sundays fishing instead of attending church with the family so without his consent, she took the saved up funds and bought a new piano, which Clarissa used to learn to play the piano. Henry did not go fishing on Sunday. Henry, also, took piano lessons with her.

2. Henry smoked. He quit when he found out his oldest child, Clarissa, was hiding his cigarettes so he could not smoke them.

3. During the first 12 years of Clarissa’s life, her parents taught school in various small towns in southern Idaho. Henry took a job near Coos Bay, Oregon and announced to the family that the church would be important and the family would be active in church. That commitment was kept and Henry served as District President for the Southern Oregon District of the Northwestern States Mission where the family met many General Authorities at District Conferences including Elder LeGrande Richards. Henry and Velma were active members the rest of their lives which included many callings and two full time missions, one to the Micronesia Mission in Guam were Henry served in the mission presidency and visited numerous islands in the mission as the supervisor of seminaries for the church in Micronesia and the second mission to the New Mexico Mission assigned to Espanola, New Mexico.

Kelly’s Dad, Kenneth Shipley Summers, was raised in Cache Valley, Utah in the small town of Paradise and herded sheep for his father. He served a mission from 1927-1929 in the California Mission where he met a fellow missionary who convinced him to move to Monticello, Utah following his mission, to run the L. H. Redd Sheep Company with 22,000 head of sheep. There he met Johanna Elizabeth Summers who was teaching school. She was raised in Iona, Idaho, went to high school in Ogden, Utah, and graduated from Weber College. Ken and Elizabeth were married in the Logan Temple and lived the rest of their lives in Monticello, Utah. Ken was involved in various livestock operations, eventually owning K. S. Summers Livestock Inc. and was very involved in civic duties having served on the draft board, town mayor, school board president and county commissioner. He was bishop of the Monticello Ward for 16 years and in the stake presidency for 9 years. Elizabeth ran the Hyland Hotel for about 40 years and was involved in church and local activities.

Kelly had moved to California with the intent to stay but it didn’t take him a year to realize that there were too many people in California and that he would be more comfortable to move nearer to Monticello were he could be closer to his family and still enjoy the wide open spaces and solitude of the four corners area. Grand Junction was a growing community, could support another attorney, was in the mission field, was relative close to Monticello and had a church organization with opportunities to serve and felt like a good fit so Kelly and Clarissa visited Grand Junction in April of 1968, interview law firms, had a job offer with Golden and Mumby within two weeks, accepted, passed the Colorado Bar Exam and started practicing in Grand Junction on October 1, 1968. They never looked back or doubted their decision to move to Grand Junction but felt that God opened doors for their move and wanted them in Grand Junction. They were needed and were given numerous opportunities to serve in the Kingdom and develop personally-opportunities they may not have received is they had lived in an area where the church was stronger.

They moved into their home on the Redlands in 1972 after its construction on 20 Road and have resided there ever since but the most important blessing was their six children, all born in St. Mary’s Hospital, all graduated from seminary and Fruita Monument High School, all endowed in the temple and all graduates of Brigham Young University, Kate in Business, Carol in History with a teaching credential, Connie in Speech Pathology, Ken in Animal Science, Kim in English with teaching and English as a Second Language credentials and Catherine in Geography with a teaching credential. Kate married Aaron Waters in the Salt Lake Temple, worked for Far West Bank in Provo, Utah, and Intrust Bank in Wichita, Kansas, as a construction loan supervisor, lived in Wichita while Aaron worked as an engineer for Cessna Aircraft Company and the FAA, and moved to Parker, Colorado in 2009, with the FAA. Kate and Aaron’s children are Curtis, Michael, and KariLynn. Carol lives in Aurora, Colorado and teaches History at Falcon Creek Middle School where she is the department chairman and was voted Teacher of the Year in 2008. She previously taught middle school for four years in Gardnerville, Nevada. She obtained a Masters Degree from the University of Colorado in Denver. Connie served in the Oakland California Mission, Spanish Speaking and as a guide at the Oakland Temple. She received her Masters Degree in Speech Pathology from BYU and after four years as a Speech Therapist with the Denver Public Schools, she is in her 5th and final year at the University of Texas in Austin to obtain her PHD degree. Kenny served his mission in the Birmingham Alabama Mission. Kenny graduated from Kansas State University with a Doctor of Veterinarian Science and practices as a veterinarian in Banning, California. While attending school in Kansas he met Johanna Elliott from Russell, Kansas and they were married in the Manti Temple. They now live in Beaumont, California with their four children, Andrew, Ian, Owen and Mya.. Kimberly taught school in Mesa, Arizona in both ESL and English and now is teaching school in Arlington, Virginia, only 10 minutes from the Pentagon. She served her mission in Concepsion, Chile and is now working on her Master’s Decree at George Mason University in Virginia. Catherine teaches Geography at Falcon Middle School and was married in the Denver Temple to Gabriel Olivares from Los Alamos, New Mexico in 2009. He has a B.S. and Master’s Degree from the University of Colorado in business and is now attending law school at the University of Denver. Misty De La Rosa lived with the Summers from time to time and was treated as family. She now lives in Las Vegas with husband Rich. They have 5 children between them.

Kelly practiced law with the same law firm for almost 40 years. During that time, h e served seven years as a part time judge for the City of Grand Junction, was a part time Deputy District Attorney, a Bankruptcy Court Trustee and was president of the Mesa County Bar Association and President of the Colorado Municipal Judges Association. He started out as a general practitioner but gradually specialized in real estate, commercial law and bankruptcy. He loved to help people and hated billing.

Clarissa’s time was spent raising the children and involved in church callings and activities. She put on pageants and road shows where her organization skills were used to pull everything together. She also was in charge of ward music-few people ever dared to tell her no. Whatever she was called to do, she did well. Her Beehives loved her as she took them all over in the “Beehive Mobile,” the Summers van. She also was President of the Primary in 3rd Ward.

Kelly served in numerous church callings including Bishop of the G. J. 8th Ward and in numerous stake and ward youth callings. His passions were church history and the handcart youth conference. He has walked over Rocky Ridge in Wyoming (14 miles) on the Mormon Trail five times. He felt his greatest achievements were the boys he raised in church (“I only have one son but lots of boys.”) and his efforts in obtaining and developing Ragged Mountain LDS Ranch for youth and families. In 2004, he was called by Elder Eyring, then of the Council of the Twelve, to be stake president of the Grand Junction Colorado West Stake. He previously served as a counselor in three other stake presidencies. He dedicated the LDS Institute Building and Ragged Mountain LDS Ranch. He loved home teaching and serving in the Kingdom. He served a mission in the Northern States Mission located in Chicago.
(10-20-2009)