Renée Jones Allen was born on March 3, 1928, a crisp spring day in Logan, Utah. She was the first child and only daughter of Cecil Murdock Jones and Minnie Andersen Jones. For 94 years, from her first breath to her last, on October 25, 2022, Renée was a source of light and joy to everyone around her—family, friends, and strangers.

After graduating from Utah State Agricultural College in 1950, Renée worked as a teacher in Portland, Oregon, turning her love of children and learning into a profession. She had known James ("Jim") Allen since junior high school, but it wasn't until she returned to Logan in 1952 that she agreed to go out with the intelligent but slightly shy Navy veteran. They were married in the Logan Temple on April 16, 1953, one year before Jim finished his bachelor's degree at USAC. Renée supported Jim's graduate and academic career, moving with him to Southern California for several years before returning to Utah and settling in Orem, which really became the family's hometown. They later served a mission together for the LDS Church in Boston, where Jim taught in the Church Education System and Renée did what she did best—made everyone feel needed and at home.

Renée always made her life and talents useful to other people, and she loved doing it. She volunteered at the local elementary school, served for years in leadership and support positions with the Paideia Sorosis and "Bookworms" enrichment clubs, and carried out many callings for her wards in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to which she was devoted her entire life. She especially enjoyed serving in the Primary organization, including as Primary president, where her love of the gospel and her enthusiasm for children were a natural fit.

In addition to her love for children, Renée loved so many seemingly small things: teddy bears, birds, lighthouses, bells, clocks, cookies, carousels, puppies, puzzles, and anything pink. Her enthusiasm for life and her genuine love of people were obvious and infectious. She could draw out even the most recalcitrant person and turn them into a conversation partner. If you were fortunate enough to be next to her in the checkout line at the supermarket, by the time you reached the front of the line you would find that you had shared your whole life story with this kind and curious stranger, without really knowing why you had done it except that she really seemed interested in you. This was her special gift, her superpower. Everyone felt comfortable with her, and she made everyone feel that their story was so interesting.

But her greatest love, her greatest interest, and her greatest source of satisfaction, was her family. She was the mother to five, grandmother to 21, and great-grandmother to 26. She is with three of them now, and has probably already drawn them out in conversation about what they've been doing all these years away from her. For as long as her health allowed her, a conversation with one of her family never ended without her telling them that she loved them. Nothing else really mattered.

In addition to her husband of 69 years, James B. Allen, who showed exemplary love and devotion to the end, Renée is survived by four of her five children: Kristine (Scott), Michael (Kelli), Nancy (Michael), and Scott (Kit). Her daughter Kathleen and husband Glen welcomed her home on her passing, as did other family members she has "loved long since, and lost awhile."

Funeral services will be held at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, 1 November 2022, at the Sharon 3rd Ward, 700 East 445 South, Orem, Utah, with time to visit the family beginning at 10:30. Renée's last few years were spent at the Courtyard at Jamestown Assisted Living Center in Provo, Utah, whose staff, along with those from Utah Home Health and Hospice, were caring and patient. We are grateful.