1967 - 2021
Lisa Michele Baker Powelson passed away in the early afternoon of Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in her parents’ home in Lindon, Utah. She fought long and hard to stay with those she loves and in a world to which she has given so much, but she passed peacefully, in the end, surrounded by her children, parents, siblings, and newest grandson.
Born in Seattle in 1967, Lisa was rich in experiences before she even graduated from high school. She spent her childhood and early adolescence in Singapore, Fiji, Hong Kong, California, and Taiwan—where she later served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1989 and 1990—before her family moved back to the Los Angeles area in 1982. Even in her adopted home of the Utah Valley, she always remained a California girl, a lover of the beach and of impossibly beautiful coastal sunsets. On repeated oceanside getaways with her family, which she made a priority every summer, she passed this love on to her children and grandchildren, on whom she doted.
Along the way, Lisa was an avid reader, learner, and student. She was a star student and spelling bee champion at Emerson Elementary School, and at Burbank High School she was perfect in the role of Liesl in "The Sound of Music" and gave countless hours in service to the community as a member of National Charity League. She set such a high bar for the three little brothers following her through the Burbank, California public schools, that her teachers were still talking about her a decade later. She went on to earn her bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, and interned for a US Senator one summer in Washington, DC. And along with her keen intelligence and quiet wit, the musical talents that Lisa developed while young never left her, or us; her piano-playing was the accompaniment for many a church meeting and the foundation of countless Christmas Eves in the Baker family household.
Lisa’s loving and supportive spirit was nowhere more evident than in her bonds with her children. She encouraged them in all pursuits, whether routine homework assignments or their own individual interests: Ashley’s dance, Audrey’s volleyball, Finn’s soccer and basketball, and Grace’s love of Harry Styles. A woman of many talents and abilities, she was able to support her children by working a diverse array of jobs; she was an insurance adjuster, the assistant to the Dean of Students at the Law School at BYU, and the manager of a bridal boutique. In this position, she went repeatedly to New York City for Bridal Fashion Week and had begun taking her children with her to soak up the culture and history there. Even deep into her fight with stage-four cancer, amidst chemotherapy and repeated procedures, she continued to work in support of her family, tending to keep her own struggles to herself. Lisa was their rock and their shoulder, and one sees her spirit of selflessness, motherly devotion and family foreverness still, in her close-knit children’s bonds with each other and care for each other.
Lisa will be remembered, always, as an unfailingly loving mother and grandmother, daughter and big sister; for her quick, warm smile; and for the incalculable generosity that drove her, even in her own time of trouble and sickness, to reach out to others and offer comfort, consolation and counsel. One of the many songs she played for us on the piano over the years, a sort of favorite in the family, was “Fill the World with Love,” from the 1969 musical Goodbye, Mr. Chips. The final verse would have us ask, in the evening of our life, whether we were brave, and strong, and true, and whether we filled the world with love our whole life through. Lisa did.
Services: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Chapel Location: Grandview Stake Center | Provo, Utah
Service Option: Webcast via mortuary website
Arrangements: Nelson Family Mortuary
Interment: Provo City Cemetery
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