Feb. 2, 1930 – Feb. 13, 2022
Rayma Stevens Anderson Burgoyne, 92, passed away peacefully on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022, in Cedar City, Utah. She was born in Holden, Utah, on Feb. 2, 1930, to parents William Elbert Stevens and Elizabeth Bishop, and married Herman Boyd Anderson on June 2, 1950, in the Manti Utah Temple.
Rayma was raised in Holden, Utah, the third of five children. She and her siblings were raised during the depression and learned to work hard and live with little. She moved to Cedar City in 1948, after graduating from Millard High School. She took a job with Durham Morris, doing secretarial work while putting herself through college at BAC.
Rayma met her future husband during this time and really enjoyed college life. She and Herman married in June of 1950, right after graduating from college. At that same time, the BAC became a four-year college, CSU, and she was able to continue her education, receiving her English and Elementary Education Degrees. Rayma began her teaching career in Fall of 1952 at East Elementary. She taught kindergarten and first grade and loved every minute of it. After having her two children, her former principal, Oscar Hulet, called and begged her to come back to work. With much deliberation, she went back to school, teaching the same grades.
After a couple of years, South Elementary was built and Rayma moved to teach kindergarten there. This was a wonderful opportunity for her because she lived right around the corner from this new school, so she and her kids could walk to school every day. She taught kindergarten, first, third and then eighth grade core for the last eight years of her 34-year career.
Rayma was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She loved the church and all her various callings. She was the Junior Sunday School Coordinator for many years. She also loved teaching Relief Society when they began having an evening session. She wrote and directed many road shows and served several missions later in life.
Rayma loved gardening. She had a green thumb and raised beautiful flower and vegetable gardens every summer. She loved digging in the dirt and keeping her yard pristine. Rayma always had beautiful geraniums. Every Fall she would collect gallon cans from the school’s kitchen and fill them with her geraniums. Then she and her kids would pull a wagon load to school each day and put them in her classroom windowsills, filling them with greenery all winter long. Rayma also spent every evening and weekend in the fall bottling and freezing the produce of both her garden and others’.
Rayma loved to sew and was an excellent seamstress. She made all her own clothes and those of her daughter, Jill. By the time Jill was 12, Rayma had her making her own clothes. Rayma loved sewing so much that she bought a fabric store, Bernina Sew New Fabrics, where both she, her daughter, and the future “Quilters of the Night,” worked, laughed and cried together. These nine ladies have been together for more than 40 years, quilting in solidarity for each other.
Rayma is preceded in death by her parents Elbert and Elizabeth Stevens, her husband Herman Boyd Anderson, siblings Keith Stevens and Bonita Stevens Cripps, and sister-in-law Virginia (Bird) Stevens.
Rayma is survived by second husband, Edwin Hinckley Burgoyne, children: Jill (Clair Morgan) Savage, and Jeffrey Boyd (Pam) Anderson; grandchildren, Suzanne, Colton (Katie), Levi, Spencer, Chase (Jessica), and Hunter; and great-grandchildren, Elli, Emma, Anderson, June, Addilyn, Scarlett, Porter, Boston, Luke, and Eliza; and siblings Lawrence Stevens, Norma (Stevens) Wood and Faris (Stevens) Stevens.
Funeral services will be held at the LDS Cedar West Stake Center, located at 725 S. 1100 W., on Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, at 11 a.m. MDT, with a viewing beforehand from 9-10:30 a.m.
Family and friends that are unable to attend are invited to view the funeral service online by clicking on the link below.
https://zoom.us/j/95674868892?pwd=bXlnQ3Qrb2F2MndMaGlGQ0VlY0x6Zz09
Passcode: Cedar13th
Interment will follow at the Cedar City Cemetery, under the direction of Spilsbury Mortuary.
Rayma’s family wish to extend our sincere thanks to the Cedar City 13th Ward for conducting the services and luncheon, and all the amazing workers at Stonehenge Skilled Nursing Facility for their love and support of her for the past 10 months.
Arrangements are made under the direction of Spilsbury Mortuary, 110 S. Bluff Street, St. George, Utah, 435-673-2454. Family and friends are invited to sign Rayma’s online guest book at www.spilsburymortuary.com