Mary Burner

St. George, UT… Mary Alice Westfall Burner, 93 passed away peacefully in her sleep in the early morning hours of Thursday, September 3, 2026, in St. George, Utah at Legacy Assisted Living. She was born in Jerome, ID., February 1, 1933, to James Stanley Westfall and Sarah Frances Hall Westfall. Mary was raised on an eighty-acre farm with a large garden in a four-bedroom home. Being the youngest and last of ten siblings, she learned how to milk eighteen cows at a time with an electric milker. When her dad and brothers left on vacation, she would milk the cows by herself. The milkman then came around, picked up the milk and sold it. In the summer, she picked potatoes, hoed beans, thinned beets, helped stack hay, drove tractor and horses, and helped her mother can all kinds of fruit and vegetables grown in the garden. She also helped feed, clean, and sell chickens. She didn’t mind working hard because everybody did. And when they were done with their work, they helped the neighbors in their fields. For fun, she would play baseball, go camping, or swim in the canal or coolie. When their work was done on Saturdays, they would go to Twin falls to a picture show for a nickel. She always loved her Sundays going to church and gathering with the family for a feast topped off with her mother’s homemade ice cream. She attended grade school 1-8 at Falls City in a lava rock schoolhouse with three rooms and a stage; grades 1-4 were in the little room while 5-8 were in the big room and the recreation hall. After grade school, she attended high school in Jerome from 1947-1951 and graduated there. When her father died in 1952, she moved to Twin Falls to live with her sister Betty and her husband, George. She worked for a year at Magic Valley Memorial Hospital as a nurse’s aide, walking to and from the hospital because she didn’t have a car. Because she loved her work, she wanted to be a nurse. So, she applied to the nursing program at Rexburg hoping to get in, but she was too late and it was filled up. She then applied for a position at the Western Union and got it. She was sent down to Elko, Nevada to train. She was going to go back to Idaho afterwards, but nothing ever opened up. It was there that she met Harry (Bink) Herbert Burner in Elko, Nevada after he’d returned from serving in the army in Korea. After a year of courting, they were married on the homestead in Falls City, Idaho, March 27, 1954. While in Elko, Mary worked for JC Penneys for six years, as Senior Citizen Director for five years, at CP National Telephone Company for over six years, and Albertson’s bakery for over eleven years. She also worked for three months at the desk of the Commercial Hotel and Motel 6, two years on the weekends at the Midtown Motel, and finally Home Health providing care for the elderly working there until 2006. She loved the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all her heart and was an active participant in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints serving in the Primary, Sunday School, Relief Society, Young Women’s, and various other callings. She was still teaching children in primary in her late 80’s. Giving graciously with what they had, Mary and Bink helped support missionaries in the field, took family on trips, and help their children or grandchildren in investing and buying homes. Because they both loved music, they would often go dancing. And while Bink played the harmonica and guitar, Mary sang in the church choir. With gratitude in our hearts, we all thank you for your dedication, sacrifices, and love to us all! During Mary’s lifetime, she lived a year in Hunt, Idaho down the road from her sister Betty in an old barracks, Provo, Utah while Binky attended Diesel School, and 51 years in Elko before moving to Twin Falls, Idaho where she lived in Lazy J Mobile Park right next to the canal. When she was 90, she moved across the grass in a basement house on Pole Line Road near her daughter Cindy. After living there for a year and a half, she moved down to St. George, Utah where she lived in a Casita with her daughter Sheila. When her health started to decline, she moved into Legacy Assisted Living where she could be among people, see the mountains out her window, walk the halls, eat what she wanted, and participate in various activities. She often commented that she lived in a castle in a place that felt like Hawaii. Mary is survived by her four children: Cynthia Denise Staples (Brett), Mathew Burner, Brad Burner (Vernie), and Sheila Burner, 11 grandchildren: Tawnya Grover (Greg), Nicole Roberts (Cameron), Chelsea Belnap (Cameron), Derek Staples (Joeli), Ashley Krieger (Kacy), Kassie Bachem (Stephen), Kara McDonald (Keaten), Terrence Burner (Tiffany), Cord Burner (Cierra), Colton Burner (Austin), and Kerry Burner (Chelsey). She has 27 great grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. At age 93, She was preceded in death by her husband, Harry Herbert Burner July 17, 2006, a great grandson, Henry Robert McDonald born on May 7, 2018, her parents, James Stanley Westfall (1952) and Sarah Frances Hall Westfall (1954), her nine brothers and sisters and their spouses: Helen Ruth Shockley (Aubrey), Carroll Clyde (Mildred), Raymond Stanley, Lucille McClanahan (George), Ione Thompson (Joe), James Hall (India Clarissa or Chris), Bernice Durham (Bob), George or Bud Edward (Barbara), and Betty Jane Nye (George). She was cremated in St. George, her ashes being returned to her beloved Jerome, Idaho to reside close to her mom and dad. A celebration of life will be held on Sunday, September 27, 2026, from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. in Twin Falls Idaho at the Institute Building at 526 Falls Ave. Twin Falls, ID. Her ashes will be buried next to her parents in the Jerome, Idaho Cemetery on 705 West Street, Cemetery Road.