Beloved wife, mother, and grandmother, Renee Strong Pearson Hedquist, age 93, passed away July 28, 2022 at her home in St. George, Utah, with her loving family at her bedside. She was born in Provo, Utah, March 29, 1929, to Mary Elvera Evans and Edison Lee Strong.
Renee attended Provo City schools and graduated from Provo High School in 1946, where she excelled in student government, sports, and was liked by all the boys. Renee married Chad Randall Pearson on April 17, 1949, and they made their home in Provo, Utah, where together they had two children. Chad passed away from Parkinson’s disease on January 31, 1961, at age 33. After being widowed at age 30, Renee continued to raise her two children, while first working as a secretary for the Provo City School District at several Provo elementary schools, as a secretary at the Utah County Commissioners Office, and finally as a trainer at the US Postal Service at the Provo post office.
Active in the LDS Church, Renee served for five years as the first chairman of the Church’s pilot program, the then-Utah Stake’s Single Adults Program in Provo. After being widowed for 18 years, Renee married Albert “Ab” Keith Hedquist on September 23, 1978, for time in the Provo LDS Temple. Renee moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her daughter Cindy, and became a devoted stepmother to Ab’s two remaining children living at home, Jason and Celeste. After Ab retired from US Steel in Pittsburgh in March 1991, Ab and Renee moved to St. George, Utah, and lived their retirement years in The Mesas Townhomes enjoying golfing, fishing, traveling, friends, and family. In Pittsburg and St. George, Renee served in various capacities in the LDS Church, including seminary teacher, Relief Society pianist, singing in the ward choir, and as a temple worker in the St. George Temple with her husband Ab.
Renee was preceded in death by her parents, Mary Elvera Evans and Edison Lee Strong, sister Thelma Hayes Collins, brothers Doyle M. Strong, Robert Q. Strong, and Jack E. Strong, and husbands Chad Randall Pearson and Albert Keith Hedquist. Renee is survived by her children: Kim Randall Pearson (Marcia), Cindy Pearson, Kristin Albert Hedquist (Kathleen), Gregory “L” Hedquist (Susan), Denece Graham Graddy (Michael), Brian Fred Hedquist (Michelle), Jason Eric Hedquist (LeAnn), Celeste Anne Ficklin (Thomas), a beloved niece, Ann Garrett (Kent), and 34 grandchildren and 63 great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be Saturday, August 6, at 2:00 pm at the LDS Foremaster Chapel, 912 South 170 East, St. George, Utah, with visitation that same day also at the LDS Foremaster Chapel from noon to 1:45 pm.
Interment will be at the Provo City Cemetery, 610 South State Street, Provo, Utah, on Monday, August 8, at 2:00 pm under the direction of McMillan Mortuary, 435-688-8880.
Renee requested that in lieu of flowers, “be kind to one another.”
The funeral service will be streamed live, please click on the link below.
Published by McMillan Mortuary on Aug. 3, 2022.
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