Obituary of Cherry Margaret Olsen Patterson

Cherry Margaret Olsen Patterson, age 75, a long time resident of Gunnison, UT passed away peacefully on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 surrounded by her family. She decided that she had waited long enough to reunite with her sweetheart who has been gone for nearly 34 years. She was the 2nd of 3 daughters born to the late George William and Ruth LaJeunesse Olsen. She also has 2 older brothers from her mother’s first marriage. She was born and raised in Southern California where her father was employed with Union Pacific Railroad.

She was introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of 14 and was baptized shortly thereafter. She met her future sweetheart William “Bill” Lee Patterson was stationed at Fort Irwin, California. When Bill was called to deploy to Vietnam they decided to elope before he left. They were married on August 30, 1967. This was later solemnized in the Los Angeles Temple.  After Bill returned from his 2nd deployment to Vietnam they settled in at Fort Leonard, Missouri. It was here that five of their six children were born. Their final child, Steven was born in Frankfurt, Germany while the family was stationed overseas in Germany.

Cherry was preceded in death by her mother and father, her husband Bill, her older brother Harry, her younger sister Forence “Peanuts”, and her granddaughter Amanda. She is survived by her older brother Frank, an older sister Nellie “Sugar” and her six children, Mark Patterson, Christine (Henry) Slack, Melissa (Robert) Peterson, Scott (Karyn) Patterson, Kimberly (Trevor) Yates and Steven (Mandi) Patterson, 18 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. Services will be Saturday February 24th at 11:00am in the LDS Stake Center in Gunnison, UT. A viewing will be held Friday night from 6-8pm and 9:45-10:45am right before the services.