Vanda McKeachnie

Vanda Toles McKeachnie passed away on December 31, 2016, at the age of 84 in Vernal, UT. She was born April 2, 1932, the second child of Melvin Frank and Venice Pope Toles. Her Brother was John Reid Toles and her half sister Madge Toles Chivers. She grew up with her father being an oil driller. He had a 16 horse hitch team of horses pulling his drilling rigs. They were based around Vernal, Utah, but moved to places like Thermopolis, Wyoming, Shelby and Keiven, Montana and Rangely, Colorado. Vanda attended high school in Vernal, UT. She was a member of the Pep Club and an editor for the Uintah High School yearbook. After high school, she married Maurice Lyle McKeachnie on June 9, 1950. She and Lyle made their home in Vernal. They were later sealed in the Salt Lake LDS temple ‪on April 14‪, 1972.‬She and Lyle had five children, three daughters and two sons: Ronal Andersen, RaKel (Jim) Boren, Malry (Jana) McKeachnie, Tracie (Craig) Hall, and Vance (Carolyn) McKeachnie. She was the proud grandmother of 27 grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren. She was a wonderful mother, giving, patient and lots of support to her children and grandchildren in all their activities. They lived a whole summer at the old Girt Place on Diamond Mountain with their five children, sheep herding and dry farming. Vanda was expecting Vance, who was born in late August of that summer. Her father also died during that summer. The businesses they began were a John Deere Dealership, Air Village Hills Subdivision and General Properties, Green Thumb Nursery, The Plant Shoppe, the Rendezvous building with many small businesses inside, Ashley Valley Water and Sewer District, and Outlaw Country RV Park, along with their ranching and farming. Her accomplishments in life were many. She was a hard worker and supported Lyle in all his dreams and projects, and helped provide for her family. She was a member of Daughters of Utah Pioneers, the PTA, and the Utah Jaycees. She was employed at Sathers Jewelry and the Uintah County Clerks Office for 10 years. She was the first secretary for Ashley Valley Water and Sewer District as a unpaid volunteer Secretary, while Lyle served as first Chairman of the Board when AVWS District went valley wide. She was a bookkeeper and secretary for all of Lyle's projects and businesses. When Lyle was a Utah State Senator for the National Jaycees, they went on a trip to New York City, NASA and the Eastern states. Her hobbies were sewing, crafting, gardening, her house plants and her flowers, canning, genealogy, tap dancing, teaching water aerobics, and her kids and grandchildren. As a member of the LDS Church, she served as a Visiting teacher, a Primary teacher, Young Women's President, Relief Society President a Temple Worker, Singing in the ward choir and served giving lots of compassionate service. In their retired years, Vanda and Lyle lived and worked at a Nursery in Flagstaff Arizona then at the Grand Canyon gift shop, in Arizona, and Steamboat Springs, CO. Campground in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, They spent summers in Vernal and winters in St. George, UT. She kept her marriage, her faith and her children strong through hard and trying times. Even in the Beehive home the past two years, she was a social butterfly with a happy disposition, singing in the Beehive Home choir and enduring to the end. All the Nurses, CNA's liked to tease and sing with her. She suffered with Diabetes and congestive heart and circulation problems. She is preceded in death by her parents, Melvin Frank and Venice Pope Toles, her brother, John Reid Toles, and her husband, Maurice Lyle McKeachnie, grandsons Chad J. Boren & Cody R. Daniels. She is survived by her five children and their spouses, Sister in law Ruby Lea Toles, her grandchildren, and many great grandchildren. Funeral services for Vanda McKeachnie, age 84, of Vernal, will be conducted on Tuesday, January 3, 2017 at 11:00 AM at the Glines 5th LDS Ward Chapel (1270 West 1500 South). A viewing for family and friends will be Monday evening from 6-8 and Tuesday one hour prior to the serves all at the Chapel. Burial will be in the Vernal Memorial Park. Services are entrusted to the care of the Blackburn Vernal Mortuary.