Margaret Jean Bell

Margaret Jean Bell came to this earth on September 27, 1938 and left this earth on January 31, 2021. She was the 3rd of 5 children born to James Alexander Bell and Maud Clement Bell and was born in the old Clement homestead in Fairview, Utah. She is named after her mom’s sister, Margaret, and her dad’s aunts, Margaret and Jean. She attended school at the Fairview Public and Junior High schools. The family moved to Pleasant Grove, Utah in 1952 and this is where she finished out her high school days. For Jean’s graduation, in the summer of 1956, Anna sent Jean a bus ticket to come to California. Jean went out and loved it so much that she stayed there for 40 yrs. She helped Anna for many of those years by watching Anna’s children while Anna worked outside the home. When the children were older, Jean went to work for the Brown Insurance Agency in Palo Alto. In 1996, Jean returned to Orem, Utah to help take care of her parents. She also took on a job working in the library of an elementary school in Provo, Utah and retired from there just a few years ago.

She was best known as “Jean”, when she was in California she started introducing herself as Margaret or Maggie, but to her family she would forever be known as Jean. She enjoyed cooking and baking during the holidays when she could make her turkey stuffing and her jam filled sugar cookies that were the favorite of all her family. Her favorite hobbies were jigsaw puzzles, crochet, making jewelry, and especially reading. She was a speed reader that read all the time, so she always carried a book with her, and no book was left unread.

Jean is preceded in death by her mother, Maud; father, James; sisters, Diana Gay and Anna Ruby; brother-in-law, EK Lane; sister-in-law, Joleen Mae Bell, and by her nephews, Robert and Richard Graham and Timothy Parker II. She leaves behind her brother, Dewey Bell, sister, Yvonne LaRae Bell & Bob Graham, and 3 generations of nieces and nephews.

Graveside services will be held at 2:00 p.m., Friday, February 12, 2021 at the Fairview City Cemetery, 1 Mile West of Town, Fairview, Utah. Friends may call at the Berg Drawing Room Chapel, 185 East Center Street, Provo, Utah from 9-11:00 a.m. prior to services. Condolences may be expressed to the family at www.bergmortuary.com.