A WRITE-UP FOR RELIEF SOCIETY

JUDITH ANN DEAN JEPSON Born October 17, 1948 Minneapolis, Minnesota Judy grew up in a semi-rural farming area south of Minneapolis called Eagan Township, Minnesota. She attended school 7 miles away in a small town named Rosemount. This area is not far south of the Mall of America. When she was a junior in high school her mother, Bev, asked her along with her two brothers, Bill and Bob, if they wanted to take skiing lessons. Bob especially became pretty good at it and hockey. Judy said she would rather take harp lessons. Her Aunt Carman, in Chicago, was a professional harpist. Her mother was surprised but said, OK! For a long time Judy took lessons from Frances Aspnes who was known as ‘Minnesota’s first lady of harp’ and who taught for over 60 years to numerous accolades. Judy had taken piano lessons from her step-grandmother, Winona Balcom, and was one of the accompanists for her junior and senior high choirs. At Rosemont High School Judy was on the cheerleading squad and from her pictures, she was pretty “hot.” Judy met her future husband Fred when he was first on his mission. Once a week or so his companion Elder Skeen, who was district leader, along with another district leader would drive “all the way to Rosemont” to teach this “young girl.” All Fred knew was that it was south and over a bunch of bridges over some rivers. He was clueless. He and the other companion, both greenies were left to “track” on there own not knowing what to say if they were invited into a home. Judy and Fred (Elder Jepson) finally met when Judy showed up at church. They met again at her baptism. On that occasion she announced that she was going out to BYU that fall. Fred gave her his home address and phone number; and when he returned home from his mission, low and behold Judy was dating Fred’s Brother’s best friend who was just leaving for his mission. When he saw that Fred was home he nearly didn’t go. But he did; he he he. Judy’s main interest at BYU was in the music department where she continued with her harp lessons. Judy and Fred were married on 13 February 1968. Their first child, Christopher was born that November, almost nine months to the day after their wedding. Jim was born less than a year after Chris. Then they figured out what caused this phenomenon and they waited six years to have Corey, with Niki coming nearly three years after him. They lived in a variety of locations in their early married years. Chris was born in San Gabriel, California. Jim was born in Minneapolis. Corey and Niki were born in Murray, Utah. The family lived in what is now West Valley City. After a couple of years they moved to Bennion/Taylorsville. This is where the children grew up and called home. In Minneapolis Judy had the opportunity to play her harp with the orchestra at the Minneapolis Children’s Theater. Judy and Fred moved on to Marina Circle in Saratoga Springs in February 2001 which they love very much. Judy is very talented and intelligent and becomes pretty much an expert at everything she tackles. She is almost indispensable at her work and when she returns from vacations she is always inundated with a backlog of work no one else can do or at least wants to tackle. She puts in many hours on her own time as she is salaried. Thanks to Fred’s working forty years at Western/Delta Airlines they have been able to see many parts of the world and have had many experiences they would not otherwise have had.