Jean Ellsworth Nicoll

Jean Ellsworth Nicoll

January 30, 1931 – May 3, 2025

Jean Ellsworth Nicoll was born January 30, 1931, in Safford, Arizona. She passed peacefully from this world in the early morning hours of May 3, 2025, attended by her daughter and son-in-law, in Provo Utah.

Jean is the daughter of William Leslie Ellsworth and Trella Scarlett. Jean was a lovely baby and the third of four daughters. She started her life as Ethel Jean but while in high school started asking family and friends to call her Jean.

Jean’s early years were in and around Safford where she spent time helping Daddy and Mother around the ranch and home and exploring the hills behind her home. When asked if she shared these explorations with her older sisters, she said, “No. They were mean to me.” We always wondered what that statement really meant and expected that it was a bit of an inside joke since her sisters were her greatest life-long friends.

On the ranch Jean learned the value of work from her father. She often remarked that, “Daddy could fix anything.” She was his shadow and joined him for long cattle drives from Arizona to Colorado, or just out on the ranch for chores, branding, or whatever needed to be done. She “pulled” many water wells in her time with Daddy. Under her father’s guidance Jean became an accomplished cowgirl and even had her own papered horse: “Jean’s Mare.”

Jean learned from her mother how to maintain a home and how to sew well. From Daddy and Mother, she learned the gospel of Jesus Christ and to love her Heavenly Father and Savior, her heavenly heritage, the value of family, and serving others. She was a life-long member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jean embodied the scripture, “To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he was crucified for the sins of the world. To others is given to believe on their words…” Jean believed the gospel from the moment she first heard it as a young child.

Jean enjoyed school and participated in theater, and sports such as tennis, basketball, and barrel racing. After graduating from Safford High School in 1949, Jean attended Eastern Arizona Junior College. After earning her associates degree, she decided to attend Arizona State University under the tutelage of her Aunt Lola. However, while she was away, her mother applied for Jean to attend Brigham Young University in Provo Utah, and she was accepted for the following year. When she returned home, her mother told Jean that she was going to BYU. Jean agreed even though she wasn’t really interested in attending BYU, but her mother had made the decision, and Jean was an obedient child. Yep, Jean had strong female role models who helped shape her life.

Jean graduated from BYU where she earned her bachelor’s degree in home economics (1955). She next earned a master’s degree from the University of Arizona in home economics education (1962). Jean spent most of her twenties and thirties in school and as an instructor teaching high school in Casa Grande and Phoenix and then as a college instructor at Arizona Western in Tucson and Phoenix College. Her expertise was in clothing construction and textiles. One former friend who attended college with her said it became quickly know by other students that Jean knew more about sewing than the teachers. All those who saw the wedding dresses she made for nieces and her daughter Andrea were awed by her skills.

Jean met Kenneth Nicoll in 1969 in Phoenix. They fell in love quickly and Kenn almost immediately started calling her “Mrs. Nicoll.” They married that same year and with Kenn came four children (Guy, Karhu, Beth, Russ) which made Jean an immediate mother. Jean and Kenn added another child when Andrea was born in 1971. Jean loved all her children even when they weren’t lovable – those who’ve raised teens understand.

In 1975, the family left Arizona for Colorado to live in Denver and then in Cedaredge in 1977. The move to Colorado started a few years of quick moves for the family including a brief stay in Price Utah (1980), before Jean and Kenn settled in Orem (1981). In Orem, Jean began teaching once again, at BYU. She was able to teach with some of her former instructors and she enjoyed her time there and the relationships she built with students and colleagues. Jean retired from BYU in 1997.

Jean supported her husband Kenn greatly in his hobbies. Countless hours were spent canning the vegetables he grew every summer, with thousands of quarts of salsa made. She and Kenn were also known for their dutch oven meals served to ward members and family. While not a scriptorian, she enjoyed attending the Adult Religion classes at BYU with Kenn and other family. Jean also enjoyed traveling. She had some epic trips to Europe with her mother and sisters, an adventure driving through Alaska with a friend, a Church History trip and seeing Israel with her husband, and after Kenn passed away some cruises to Alaska and Central America with an old friend.

Jean was always willing to serve in callings, and served for many years in Relief Society, from president to visiting teaching coordinator. She loved her time serving alongside her husband as he was a counselor in a BYU YSA Ward. They also served together as temple workers in the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

After Kenn’s passing in 2005, Jean once again found herself a single woman. She immediately threw herself into serving others and blessing the lives of her children and grandchildren. As her sisters each left this mortal existence, she reminisced on the reasons she remained and longed to again be with Kenn, Mother and Daddy, and her sisters. Jean enjoyed the luck of a cat and lived nine lives. She faced multiple life ending events and marveled that she survived them to reach 94 years of age. She was bitten by a rattlesnake (1), struck by lightning (2), survived a major car accident that broke her neck (3), somehow walked away from the truck when she and Kenn hit black ice and rolled off Kebler Pass in Colorado (4), breast cancer (5), a large pulmonary saddle embolism (6), two strokes (7 and 8), and finally met her match with a broken leg caused by a fall (9).

Jean was proceeded in death by her parents, her husband Kenneth N. Nicoll, her sisters Mary Alice Smith and her husband George, Diane Gourdin and her husband Melvin, and Carol Ellsworth. She is survived by her daughters Andrea Wilson (Ron) and Beth Nicoll-Moore (Scott), her sons Guy Nicoll (Lorraine), Karhu Hakataia, Russ Nicoll (Kennedy), grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews and their families.

Funeral services will be held Friday May 16, 2025, at the Wheeler & Sundberg Funeral Homes located at 495 S. State Street in Orem, Utah. Services will be at 11:00 am. A viewing will occur prior to the services from 9:30 am to 10:30 am. Interment will be at the Orem City Cemetery.

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