Joye McRae Bennion was born on April 23, 1925, in Casa Grande, Arizona, to Laura Zelma Morris McRae and William August McRae. She was the second of three children; her older sister, Jean McRae Hardy, and her younger brother, Robert Morris McRae, both preceded her in death.

As a young woman, Joye McRae studied sociology at the University of New Mexico. At the end of her third year, she followed in the tradition of her mother and sister Jean and accepted a mission call from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joye served in the Southern States Mission. Afterward, she returned to school, this time at BYU, where she met George Cannon Bennion. In 1948 they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. He was recalled to service in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

Following that tour of duty, George reentered civilian life and they were well on the way to raising their large family, almost all those years spent living in Orem, Utah. George and Joye were married for 69 years before his passing in 2017. They had ten children, twenty-six grandchildren, and thirty-seven great-grandchildren.

Joye's life of service and faith continued over the years through activity and participation in Church callings and other events. She attributes being raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the most influential factor in her life. Her faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and membership in the Church were profound and intrinsic, inseparable from her daily life. Church service was always a part of her parents' lives and of her own; she grew up understanding that service was simply part of being alive.

Joye's life was filled with variety. In addition to her sixty-nine year marriage and the rearing of ten children, she had a decades long career as a manager for ZCMI, where she was loved and respected. Joye traveled the world and made lifelong friends on every journey. She was also an avid sports fan, particularly BYU sports, following her favored teams first on radio and then television. She especially loved watching basketball and tennis. She loved music, in particular the compositions of Rachmaninoff; she enjoyed opera and became a happy and regular attender of the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre.

Joye and her family traveled annually to enjoy the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah, from its beginning season. For over sixty years, she and George were

members of a beloved study group, reading and discussing important and consequential books with remarkable friends. Literacy was of primary importance, and Joye volunteered

reading with children in her home and at a nearby elementary school. She

became interested and then expert in projects of her children, ranging from ham radio operation to spinning and weaving. Joye brought a refined esthetic and creative mind to solving everyday problems, meeting each challenge with her signature style of ease and grace.

In the early 1990's, Joye and George participated in a life-altering professorial exchange program in Mainland China. They taught at Xi'An Foreign Language University for three years and then added two more years teaching at Shandong Teachers University in Jinan, China. Because of her friendly, open heart, the Chinese students became treasured friends, calling and traveling often to visit Joye and George in Utah.

During a trip into central China in the 1990's, Joye observed a primary school in a small, mountainous village in Shaanxi Province. She perceived the needs of the children for education as well as the devotion and determination of their parents and headmaster. She was instrumental in establishing the China Teachers' Alumni Association as a part of BYU Kennedy Center exchange program, and in making this village school a focus of the humanitarian effort of the association. She helped raise money for tuition and materials, including books, technology, teacher salaries, and scholarships for children to attend high school. While Joye has said that she felt her contributions were "hopelessly inadequate," her work provided innumerable opportunities to the children, which have transformed the lives of those students and families.

A celebration of Joye's life will be held on Saturday June 25th at 10:30 AM at the LDS Lakeview Eighth Ward Chapel located at 155 West 1600 South in Orem, Utah.

Interment will be at the Vernon Cemetery in Tooele County.

Condolences may be offered to the family online at www.walkersanderson.com

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to the LDS Perpetual Education Fund or to the LDS Humanitarian Fund.