Ellwood Earl Cluff's Obituary
Ellwood Earl “Woody” Cluff of Mapleton, Utah, passed away in his home on Sunday April 25, 2021 of natural causes incident to his age of 92 years, 2 months and 18 days. The eldest son of his late father, Millard “K” Cluff and late mother Freeda Gertrude Potts Cluff, Woody was born February 7, 1929 in Los Angeles, California.
A master home designer and builder by trade, Woody began his career at an early age working for his maternal grandfather in La Canada, CA. His parents divorced when he was only 12. He spent his teen years in New York City with his mother who ran a boarding house in the Greenwich village district of Manhattan, where she hoped to pursue her dream of being an opera singer in the Metropolitan Opera. Her dream was never realized, but Woody did get a musical training that enriched his life.
Graduating early from high school in Manhattan, Woody moved to La Canada, CA, to live with his grandparents while attending Glendale City College. There he met his future wife, Maryanne Jackson whose family had recently relocated from Oklahoma. They met through their common love of music and musical instruments. Maryanne played percussion and Woody played tuba and sousaphone as well as a string bass in a dance band.
Woody and Maryanne married April 30, 1948 in Glendale, CA, after a two-year courtship. Their honeymoon turned into a nightmare when after a long round-trip to Mexico and back to Norwalk, CA, they encountered a telephone pole that cost them the car and an extended recovery from injuries. Maryanne spent 6 weeks in traction and wore a brace on her right leg for almost a year after that. Fortunately for them, it did not stop them from being able to have a large family over the next 15 years.
Maryanne chose to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1949. Two years later, while expecting her third son, the family were sealed in the Mesa Arizona Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for time and eternity. Activity in the Church has been foundational to the well-being and happiness of the family ever since. Weekly attendance was consistently followed, even when the youngest son was born on a Sunday. Woody took the other children to church while Maryanne was in the hospital. All five sons served full-time missions for the Church as young adults, and all six were married in a temple of the Lord. Woody also served several years as a temple worker in the Provo Utah and Payson Utah Temples. Of all of Woody and Maryanne's accomplishments as parents, their greatest is that they set an example of faithfulness to the Lord in their covenant stewardship, setting the feet of their children on the path to everlasting life.
Among his other accomplishments, Woody and Maryanne participated in their children's youth activities including Scouting programs, and Young Women summer camps. Woody joined the scouting trips of his sons on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains while Maryanne served to supervise the Young Women's summer camp programs. Their eldest three sons earned Eagle awards from the Boy Scouts of America, their younger two earned Life Scout Awards. All earned the Duty to God, a Church award.
Woody remodeled the family home or replaced it with a new home several times. Two homes were built in Orem, Utah in 1973 and 1977. Woody owned his own construction company during that time and built 20 homes throughout Orem, doing work on numerous other jobs. In 1981, Woody hired on as construction superintendent over the building of the Intermountain Power Plant at Lyndyl, Utah, near Delta.
He spent three years as an instructor for Utah Technical College (now know as Utah Valley University) teaching construction skills to inmates at the Utah State Penitentiary in Draper, Ut. In 1983, Woody and Maryanne moved back to California, this time to northern California to develop an RV park and mobile home community near Dunnigan, CA. They bought and renovated a property in Dunnigan and lived there until December 2004, enjoying the company of many of their married children's families in nearby Woodland, CA. Upon selling that home, they relocated back to Utah County, Utah, settling in Mapleton, their final home.
In 1999, Maryanne began showing the symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer's disease which began a 20-year course that lead to her death on January 22, 2019.
Woody had suffered a heart attack in Sept., 1999, which was corrected with a quadruple bypass surgery. In the succeeding 22 years, he suffered a stroke and several episodes of congestive heart failure. He fought a valiant fight. He reared a righteous posterity. He fulfilled his covenants unto the Lord. Hereafter, a crown of righteousness is laid up in store for him and his beloved Queen.
Woody was preceded in death by his wife: Maryanne P. Cluff; his parents: Millard “K” Cluff, Freeda G. Wood, and his step-mother Mercie Lee Cluff; two half-sisters: Anna Lee Mackay and Patricia Kay Williams; two children: Tracy Lanae Cluff and Mark Andrew Cluff; one son-in-law: Van E. Johnston; two grandsons: Ryan Dana Cluff and Brent Jared Cluff. He is survived by two half-siblings: Mary Emma Mackay and Millard “K” (MK) Cluff II; his six eldest children: Lynn (Joene) Cluff of Fernley, NV, Curt (Diana) Cluff of Clay, NY, Rex (Julie) Cluff of Idaho Falls, ID, Terry Johnston of Mapleton, UT, Ken (Frankie) Cluff of Springville, UT, and Eric (Joan) Cluff of Orem, UT. Fifty-three grandchildren and their spouses plus 53 great-grandchildren comprise a total of 120 current descendants of our noble parents.
A graveside service will be held at 11:00AM MDT on Friday, April 30, 2021 in honor of Woody and Maryanne's 73rd Anniversary, at the Springville, UT, Evergreen Cemetery located just south of the 1600 North (Mapleton) signal on US 89. (GPS coordinates: 40.1407318046149, -111.60360300197677). A luncheon will follow the service for family members at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints meeting house located at 970 North 400 East, Mapleton, UT.
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