Vivien Robison

VIVIEN BEECROFT ROBISON
Life Sketch
Vivien was the darling little sister of the nine Beecroft siblings—the last to be welcomed into this life and now into the afterlife. With blonde curls, a big smile, a silk and velvet voice, and a say-it-like-it-is-and-don’t-flatter-me personality, she never tired of getting people together—family, fellow singers or neighborhood friends. Whether planning delicious food, meaningful conversation, or beautiful singing she was somehow always able to enfold us in sweet harmony without compromising that ultimate power-tool of her unflagging honesty.
The food always came from those markets which had advertised the best sales, or from her coveted vegetable garden (no flowery words—no flowery garden). But she made sure conversation flowed easily from everyone else present, usually prompted by a little scripture study, a Family Home Evening game, or a meaningful question.
She was an organizer—never letting her teen-aged friends in the Provo 8th Ward go very long without a fireside, a dance, or a game party. And later she drew Oak Hills 4th Ward friends into weekly scripture reading groups, and founded its Annual Fish Fry (these are both now half-century-long traditions) . . . and took us to the Utah Shakespeare Festival (staying in the SUU dorms) . . . and to the Martin Harris Pageant in Clarkston . . . and tubing down the Colorado (for all families who’d read the Book of Mormon that year) . . . and the Santa’s workshops to build wooden toys for your grandchildren . . . and the singing . . . .
ohhh . . . . the singing!
- starting with her high school girls trio,
- moving to BYU choirs and starring roles in its presentations of 'Pirates of
Penzance', 'Lakme' and 'LaBoheme' (during which she [Mimi] and Clayne [Marcello]
fell in love with each other—not with the 'Rodolfo' and 'Musetta' they had to kiss on
stage in the opera),
- and very successfully teaching a dozen BYU singing students each week for four
decades while Grandma Ruth helped raise her growing family,
- and harmonizing favorite folk songs with her six children (and in turn several foster
children) as they cleaned the kitchen together,
- and letting them sneak from their bedrooms to listen while 'The Robison Singers'
(a double quartet which Vivien organized) practiced late on Sunday evenings for
Christmas programs up and down the Wasatch Front,
- and producing the life-changing Carol Lynn Pearson/Lex de Azevedo musical 'The
Order is Love', performed first by stake youth and later in another production by
ward youth,
- and loving her six years in the Tabernacle Choir (after the children were raised, of
course!),
- and perhaps most memorably, taking the family caroling for neighbors on
Christmas Eves and leaving behind a generous sampling from the 40 pounds of
her hand-dipped chocolates, which she afforded by rounding up wholesale nuts for
the valley’s home-candy-makers.
Remember the two over-loaded pallets of boxes on our driveway early each December? They satisfied Viv’s entrepreneurial spirit and her love of fresh almonds, earned her a fun new nick name: 'The Nut Lady', and made many happy friendships.
After a very successful mission loving the Germans in the 60’s—when Vivien began to feel criticisms challenging her faith—she chose faith and stuck by it. Then on a senior mission in the 00’s, with Clayne at her side, they scoured Vienna for delectables, traipsing them in a pull-cart across the city to the tiny kitchen in the Youth Institute where she cooked the unaccustomed ingredients with her accustomed skill to attract young people to the home evenings, choir practices and Institute classes that followed. They came, ate, stayed, and sang.
She was born on April 15, 1941, in the Mexican border town of Douglas, Arizona, where her faithful polygamist grandparents (of whom she was very proud) had fled far enough away from the Mormon colonies in Mexico to escape Pancho Villa from the south—but not so far as to tempt the federal marshals from the north. However, when she was a toddler, her father, Irl, was killed by burning slag while working the smelter pots in neighboring Bisbee. So mother Ruth, assessing the prospect of raising a large family on a small pension, moved to Provo to make a BYU education a possibility for them. She made payments on a small home by squeezing the family together, stacking the boys into bunkbeds or sending them out on missions so she could rent ‘spare’ bedrooms to BYU students.
Required to share a double bed with her early-widowed mother, who often grieved through the night, Vivien eventually chose a ‘see-it-like-it-is-and-make-it-work-out’ view of life—no extra drama and very few tears (except when trying to perform a particularly touching solo like 'Mary’s Lullaby' in a Christmas program). Viv just refused to feel sorry for herself, even during this last difficult year. She made it easy for us and her hospice caregivers, Susannah, Ryann, and Elyse, whom she thanked daily, and whose cheery, loving care for her we are all very grateful for.
Always repelled by even a whiff of bragging or flattery, she started writing her personal history several times but could never quite get to the part where she was supposed to talk about herself. In her last months, near-frozen in her bed by a congenital deterioration in her cerebellum, she could always still manage a frown as we read successive drafts of this obituary to her. (We wrote most of her successes back into it when she could no longer object).
She was able to balance great food and a clean house by organizing the children, who always knew—though reproved betimes with sharpness—that their success in life was her goal in life. In these last months, when she could barely bring herself to speak, the tiny sentences she did muster often bespoke concern for one grandchild or another. As usual, she was pretty sure what they should do next; though she always had a little more difficulty deciding what she should do next. On April 28th, 2025, it was finally decided for her. We are already missing her wise counsel and gregarious warmth.
A memorial service with music and tributes from her family will be held at the Oak Hills Stake Center, 925 East North Temple Drive at 4:00 p.m on Thursday, May 22nd (fortuitously their 58th wedding anniversary). The service will be available on-line through www.BergMortuary.com. Extended family or friends who would like to sing 'Go Ye Now In Peace' for her and perhaps a few other favorites, please rehearse with the family at 2:30 p.m. in the chapel.
Appropriate to Vivien’s memory, after the service we will all enjoy a delicious buffet as we greet, sing a bit more together, and share brief memories.
The following morning at 10 a.m. she will be laid to rest at East Lawn Memorial Hills—again beside her mother—and again surrounded by beloved family and friends—to be joined later by her grateful and devoted husband, Clayne.