Margaret Jarvis Overson's Funeral

Cousin Randy sent a copy of Margaret Overson's funeral program.

 

After Margaret's husband, Henry Overson, died in 1947, Margaret moved to Mesa and built a home on the lot that Henry had purchased for her several decades before. She lived at 155 E. 1st Avenue, in the Mesa Second Ward, within walking distance of the Mesa Arizona Temple, and would often take her grandchildren there to do baptisms for the dead. She spent many years working on her genealogy of the Jarvis, DeFriez, and Overson families.

Margaret's son Peter provided much of her care in her last years.

Bishop Max Cox who conducted the service is probably the same Max Cox who started Cox Printing, a well-known local business in Mesa. 

Here is a link to Wallace's funeral address: "Tribute to a Pioneer Mother."

The pallbearers were sons Victor, Harry, Ross, and Peter, grandson Kay Ross, and son-in-law Eugene.

There were four musical numbers, two of them performed by the local Singing Mothers. Here is a post about the Singing Mothers. Here is a version of the last musical number that was performed at the funeral:

The text to "O My Father" has been set to many tunes, but this was the favorite arrangement for funerals, so this is probably the version that was played as Margaret Jarvis Overson's family and friends made their farewells to this amazing, tough, busy, faithful woman.

O My Father (Eliza R. Snow)

O my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and glorious place,
When shall I regain thy presence
And again behold thy face?
In thy holy habitation,
Did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood
Was I nurtured near thy side?

For a wise and glorious purpose
Thou hast placed me here on earth
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth;
Yet ofttimes a secret something
Whispered, "You're a stranger here,"
And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.

I had learned to call thee Father,
Thru thy Spirit from on high,
But, until the key of knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heav'ns are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason; truth eternal
Tells me I've a mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?
Then, at length, when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you.