Mary Lou Madsen Nichols

Our beloved Mary Lou Madsen Nichols, 85, passed away peacefully on January 29, 2022, in Heber City, Utah. Mary Lou was born on June 14, 1936, to Evan and Rae Madsen in Thatcher, AZ where her father taught at Eastern Arizona College. The Madsen family later moved to Utah where Mary Lou graduated from Jordan High School in Sandy. She continued her education at Brigham Young University, receiving degrees in Elementary Education and German. Shortly after graduating in 1958, Mary Lou was introduced to Kaye Nichols by their mutual and now life-long friends Pete and Ann Hovenier, beginning a courtship that continued her whole life.

Mary Lou left Provo to teach Fifth Grade in Santa Maria, California. When military service called, Kaye and Mary Lou were married on February 20, 1960, in the Los Angeles LDS Temple before moving to Germany where Kaye would serve as a Chaplain’s Assistant in the Army and Mary Lou taught school in the German Grundschule. Upon their return they spent time in Provo, Utah, and Portland, Oregon, before settling in Molalla, Oregon in 1967 where Kaye established a dental practice.

Mary Lou was a skilled musician and loved playing the piano and organ. She shared that passion with hundreds of piano students including her own children, all skillfully taught to create beautiful music (some more than others). She was an avid reader and instilled a love of reading in her children. She and Kaye were involved in their community and passed that value on to their children.

Mary Lou was very resourceful and resolute, and her children believed she could make or do anything. She was a gifted seamstress, an ambitious gardener, fond of animals and humans. She served and cared for those in need both through church service and as a kind neighbor. She mothered the many foreign exchange students who spent time in her home, turning strangers into close additional members of her family. Kaye and Mary Lou retired and moved to Midway, Utah in 2005, where they reunited with old family and friends.

Throughout her life, Mary Lou enjoyed learning about and sharing with her children the stories of her family’s history. She was extremely proud of her German and Danish pioneer heritage and lovingly preserved the heirloom treasures of her family.

Her ability to call it like she saw it, and to love and serve others like they were family, were her twin hallmarks. Mary Lou’s highest priority was her family, and she put her husband and children ahead of all other pursuits in life. Her devotion to her husband was unparalleled, and nothing meant as much to her as having her children and her grandchildren gathered around her.

She is loved and will be dearly missed by friends and family. Her family especially thanks the remarkable caregivers at Spring Gardens in Heber City for the kindness they gave Mary Lou during her brief time there.

Mary Lou is survived by her husband, Kaye P. Nichols; their children, Tanja Watts (Larry), Kirsten Visick (Chris), Lori Nichols and Scott Nichols (Amy); 11 grandchildren; and 3 great-grandchildren; she was preceded in death by her daughter, Cheryl Anne Nichols.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 am on February 12, 2022 at the Midway Stake Center, 165 N. Center Street, Midway, Utah. A viewing will be held prior to the service between 9:30 and 10:30 am. Interment will be at the Midway City Cemetery.

The service may be streamed via the following zoom information:
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