1944 6-29 Arline Kunz Funeral Services

Funeral Services for Arline Kunz

June 29, 1944

Conducted by Bishop Walton

We will commence these services this afternoon in honor and tribute of

Sister Arline Kunz by the choir singing “Oh, My Father,”
after which the invocation will be offered by Brother Radcliff Henrie.
The choir will then sing “That Beautiful Land.”

Invocation–Radcliff Henrie

    Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.  We have met here this afternoon, our Father, to pay our respects to one of Thy handmaidens who has departed this life and to her family.  We pray Thee, our Father in Heaven, while we are thus assembled here this afternoon that Thou will let our minds be attuned to Thee, that Thy spirit will be with us.  We pray that which may take place here today will be for the comfort and good of those who have met here.  Bless those who will take part on the program, that Thy spirit will help and guide them.  Help us all from time to time, that we may live with an eye to Thy glory, that we may eventually gain eternal life and salvation.

    We pray Thee that Thou will look down upon those bereaved this day–her family, her relatives, her friends, and this community, for we realize we will miss Arlene very much.  Bless the family that they will realize all good gifts come from Thee, and it is Yours to give and take back.  Be with us while we humbly wait before Thee and all during our coming life.  In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Bishop Walton

Our program as prepared by the members of the family of
Sister Arlene will go forth as follows:

 
    A tribute by Sister Cowley-this comes from one of the study groups of which Arlene was a member.
    She will be followed by Brother Clarence Knowles, an uncle of Arlene’s.
    Following him will be a duet by Sister Fredonna Dixon and Brother Mervin Christensen, “Beautiful Home”
    Brother Clifton Kerr will be the next speaker, and
    The closing remarks will be myself
    The choir will then sing “God Be With You ‘til We Meet Again”
    The benediction will be given by Brother Floyd Stohl

Mrs. Cowley

    I have been asked to give a tribute to Arlene from the girls who were associated with her in a little sewing and social club.  We are glad for this opportunity to express our love for Arlene and our appreciation for the privilege we have had to associate with one so sweet, so gentle, and so friendly as Arlene.

    I have no flowery phrases.  I want only to tell you simply and sincerely that we loved Arlene.  We enjoyed her company.  We liked to tell her our problems, and listen to hers, for in her we knew we had a true friend with an understanding heart and an earnest and sincere desire to be helpful–to do some small service for someone else.

    We will miss her keenly and our gatherings will never be quite the same again, but we want to feel not that we have lost a friend but that we have a friend who will be ours forever.

            “There’s an open gate at the end of the road
                Thru which each must go alone
            And there in a light we cannot see
                Our Father claims His own.

            Beyond the gate your loved one
                Finds happiness and rest
            And there is comfort in the thought
                That a loving God knows best.”

    It seems to me that Arline has accomplished in her short span of years that which it will take most of us many more years to achieve.  She has already lived a lifetime of service to others.

            “Sweet as the tender fragrance that survives,
                When martyred flowers breathe out their little lives,
              Sweet as a song that once consoled our pain,
                But never shall be sung again
              In thy remembrance
                Now the hour of rest hath come to thee.
              Sleep loved one.  It is best.”

Clarence Knowles

    My dear brothers and sisters and friends and near relatives, it is with mixed emotions and deep gratitude in my heart that I stand here in this position today.  I am grateful for the confidence o this family who is called upon to mourn that they would ask me to speak, and I pray at this time that the prayer that was offered may be realized in my behalf, that those who take part on this program may have the spirit of the Lord.

    Arline, who remains lie here before us, has passed on from this state of existence.  She is not dead.  She is very much alive, and she is happy.  Happier than she has ever been.  She is a member of a family of ten children.  She is a twin–one of three pairs in this same family.
    I remember very vividly when the last pair of twins was born to this family.  I was working in California at the time.  I remember receiving a letter from Alfred Kunz in answer to one I had written him telling him how I thought he should feel thankful to his Heavenly Father for such a family.  I remember he said he was glad I had said that because many people had seemed to feel that things was overdone, and he was having too many children.

    Adam was commanded by our Heavenly Father to multiply and replenish the earth.  Then He said, “You will have joy and rejoicing in your posterity.”  Brother Kunz has a very wonderful posterity, and I am sure he is realizing the blessing given to Adam.

    His good wife, my sister, gave her life for this family.  She gave all she had.  Arline took up where her mother left off and has carried on wonderfully.  She too has given her all for this family.  And I am reminded of the Savior when He said, “No man has great love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  I wouldn’t trade their position in life if I had it for all the wealth in this world.  They have the greatest blessing that God has to give to mankind.

    I said Arline is not dead.  She isn’t.  She has lived up to the requirements of Jesus Christ as nearly as she had in her power to do so.  She is dressed today in the beautiful garments and robes of the Temple.  A blessing that doesn’t come to all people, but a good and great thing that can come to mankind.  She believed in Jesus Christ with all her heart.  She believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.  She believed the sayings of the Savior when He said, “I am the resurrection and the light, and whosoever believeth in me shall be saved.”  So she is not dead.  She will never die.  She believed in these things.  The time will come when she will come back and take up this body and live in immortality.  She has complied with the law, and the law is the Celestial Law, that where God and Christ are those who live the law may live forever and forever.

    I pray that you good people will help to carry on.  Help these children.  Keep them straight.  Keep them clean as Arline has kept her life so when their life is finished they may go to as fine a reward as she is going to.

    I do not feel to take more of the time, but I do feel to thank my Heavenly Father for this family.  I thank my Father in Heaven for my heritage.  In this room site my uncle, who is the son of the original family who accepted the Gospel and came to America for its sake.

    My record show that my Grandmother was baptized by Brother Heber C. Kimball in England, and came to America for the gospel.  They settled in Logan in 1860.  My records show that my Grandfather also accepted the gospel in England and came to America in his young manhood.  He came and went through all the trials of the pioneers for the gospel’s sake.

    Now I hope and pray that we who are here today will be ever thankful for that heritage and may realize and accept the message that they accepted.  I want to bear my testimony that I know that his is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I know that if we comply with the ordinances we shall receive its blessings; but if we feel it isn’t necessary, I am sure we will not receive its blessings.  The Lord told Joseph Smith, “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do as I say, but when ye do not as I say, then ye have no promise.”

    I am sure Arline has complied with the laws as nearly as she had in her power and belief to accept them, and I feel to pray that the Lord will bless Brother Kunz and his family.  That He will come to their aid and help to keep the family together, and when their work is done, his entire family too may be saved as Arline.  This is my humble prayer and I ask it in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Clifton Kerr

    I am sure we are all humble today as we reflect upon the life of service and devotion of Arline.  You may search your memory for very many expressions in your experience of a life of devotion as great as hers.

    It is said that men live in deeds rather than in years, and I think her life bears out that statement.  It makes little difference whether people pass on in infancy, youth, middle age or old age.  The only thing that matters is what they did with the years allotted to them.

    It might be thought that this devotion of Arline’s interfered with her happiness.  The very nature of the service given to her family made it necessary that she be held away from many enjoyments young people have.  A family of younger brothers and sisters and the responsibilities she had with them, it was not possible to participate in many of the things young people do, and so we may wonder if she got out of life as much happiness as most young people do.

    To begin with, I am sure she got happiness in knowing she was doing the will of her mother, and she had faith that was abundant.  So in carrying on her responsibilities, I am sure she achieved happiness.

    One thinker has said happiness is having nothing to conceal in this life.  We all know how humbly she lived.  The tribute given her bears out that fact.  My first recollection of Arline was about seventeen years ago when I had her and her twin sister in a Sunday school class.  She was interested and humble then, and as I have observed her from time to time since, I have seen her interest grow and she has become very devoted to her church and her association has been with people who possess the same high ideals as she possessed.

    Another person has said a source of happiness is to obey God’s promise and help others to do so.  We know the efforts she has put forth to see that her younger brothers and sister were taught the principles of Jesus Christ.  I believe Arline has done a noble duty.  She has done her duty well and given encouragement to them to seek righteousness.

    There is no true happiness that is not connected with service to mankind.  When some of the followers of the Lord asked what great commandment to observe, He said, “Love the Lord” and the second one, “love they fellow men.”  He didn’t mean by this just to pay lip service to God, but the whole basis of the gospel of Jesus Christ is based upon the service we give our fellow men.

    In this respect I believe Arline achieved happiness in a way very few of us would understand.  So I am sure she knew happiness in her short life as much as many people do who live to a ripe old age.

    Monuments that have been built to men whose memory has endured have been built to men whose life was one of service.  The world quickly forgets those whose greatness has been built upon material things, but they shall long remember those whose service was in the service of mankind.  In this respect, I believe that Arline discovered a “Pearl of Great Price.”  She learned that the greatest thing is the saving of mankind.  Her memory should be sacred to us all.

    I am sure it needs to be said that Alfred treasures the great interest she took in that family after the death of her mother.  God bless her memory.  God bless those who are left to mourn with courage to carry on her great qualities.  I pray the spirit of the Lord will be with you and I do it, in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Bishop Walton

    I was thinking as these services were going forward that this room and this building is a familiar place to Arline.  She understood all of it.  Perhaps the least one that she participated in was the recreation hall and yet she did that.  She came here to church.  She came here to the auxiliary association meetings.  She came to Relief Society meetings and work meetings.  All the rooms in this chapel were familiar to her, and as has been said she accomplished a great deal in a very short time.

    I am grateful this afternoon to be a friend to this great little girl and to her father and mother and the family.

    I remember saying at her mother’s funeral that God had been mindful of Alfred Kunz.  He had opened the portals of heaven and sent to him some very choice spirits.  As these boys and girls came to this wonderful wife and mother, she gave all she had to teach them the admiration of the Lord.

    I remember saying, too, that I was sure Sister Kunz would not regret giving her life for this family, and if Arline, too, has sacrificed many years of her life to carry on the responsibility she had assumed since the death of her mother, then they put a great responsibility on these fine boys and girls.  And for just a moment I would like to address my remarks to them in this thought.

    I am sure that God intended for Sister Kunz to live upon this earth until you got here.  She was to raise a large family and then right in the middle of life, her mission ended, and she returned to God.  She gave her life to you her family, and then Arline, poorly in health, took up the duties and responsibilities of her mother, and in spite of all that everyone could do to help and give her council, she too gave her all for the family.  She felt there was so much to accomplish and you boys and girls will never know until you have gone where she has gone.  You will never be able to appreciate or understand how much she loved you.

    The instinct of motherhood came to her, and it seems to me that all the beauties and powers of mother centered in that little girl, and with all her strength she exercised it for you boys and girls so you could benefit.  She never thought one minute of her own welfare.  It was always you boys and girls.  She came to me and talked to me about you.  I pray God will bless you that will associate what this life has meant to her and to her mother, and live so that when you meet them you will be able to say, I have kept the faith and did all I could to prove my appreciation for the untold sacrifice that has been made to me.

    If you will be true and faithful to the teachings of your father and mother, follow into the footsteps of this your sister, you can be assured that God will have a glorious blessing in His kingdom for you.  You must live according to the ways of the Lord which Arline has tried to teach you and then and only then will you ever see or enter the Celestial Kingdom of God.  The Lord has given us commandments which He expects us to follow.

            This sacrifice has been made for you, and I am sure you will hallow and appreciate it, and do all in your power to make them happy.  Don’t think that your mother and sister know not the life that you will live. The anxieties, the duties will be as great and they will ever be looking out for your welfare.

    There is a loving blessing in store for Brother Alfred because of his posterity.  Families are never divided.  Only sin can take them from you and me.  Before I forget, there are more people I want to pay tribute to-their neighbors, and particularly Sister Weese.  I have been in their home quite a number of times and I want to say I have never known a neighbor to be more devoted and concerned over the welfare of anyone than Sister Weese has been with Arline.  God bless her and give her the reward she so deserves.  I know she feels as keenly this loss today as anyone could except in their own blood and flesh.  She has been wonderful to Arline.  Always neighborly, feeling their interest in one another, that is one of the great gifts God bestowed upon us.  I pay my tribute to her neighbors all around her.  You have been interested and mindful of her and the children’s welfare.  May God bless us that we may be appreciative of the opportunities to serve.

    There are days coming when the valiant of the Lord will be called upon to offer up great sacrifices in service.  Conflict will be great.  Great things will transpire on the face of the earth.  I want to say to these boys–prepare yourself for that.  Let us see you in this building, in the classroom, for it is said man is saved no faster than he gains intelligence.  Most of us will live to see many great and wonderful things yet transpire.

    God bless you, Brother Alfred.  You are a good man and a good neighbor.  AS your bishop, I have never asked you to do a thing that you haven’t responded to.  God bless you and your family that they may have an opportunity to reflect many times upon the marvelous mother and sister who have gone to the other side and who will be waiting for you, if you are worthy.  God bless the memory of this dear girl, sweet, innocent, pure.  I could think of nothing more great than to have a character and disposition as she had.  She prepared herself, went to the House of the Lord and so she did everything she could and her reward I am sure is satisfying to her.

    Brother Alfred desired I should thank you for your presence here today, for the many acts of kindness you have given, for the floral offering, and all those who have taken part.  The family are grateful to you for this.

    I ask God’s blessings to be upon you.  May He bless us all, I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

    The choir will now sing, “God Be With You ‘til We Meet Again.”  The benediction will be by Brother Floyd Stohl.

Benediction--Floyd Stohl

    Our Father in Heaven, we are deeply grateful for the opportunity we have of meeting here today, and we feel to thank Tee for the words of comfort given us.  We thank Thee for the gospel and the principles of eternal life that gives us hope that we may again associate with Arline.

    We ask Thee to bless Brother Kunz and his family, to help them and comfort them.  We pray that in our journey to the cemetery, no harm will befall us, that all may go well.  We pray for these blessings and we do it in Jesus name, Amen.