Carma Hurst Ferguson

May 26, 1925 - February 10, 2017

With loved ones by her side, Carma Ferguson entered eternal life on Friday 10 February 2017.       Carma Hurst Ferguson was born 26 May 1925 in Burley, Idaho. She was the youngest of eight children born to Creighton B Hurst and Mary Elizabeth Mitchell. Carma spent the first fifteen years of her life in Burley. The family then relocated to Vallejo, California, where her father and brother worked in the naval shipyards during WWII. After graduating from high school, she worked as a model for a furrier in Hollywood, California. She later attended The University of California at Berkeley, and volunteered at Mare Island Naval Hospital, providing comfort to wounded WWII veterans. It was there that she met the love of her life, Clarence “Fergie” Ferguson. After marriage, they moved to Hollywood, California, where Fergie attended UCLA.   In 1947, they were blessed with the first of five children. They spent the next 20 years in the greater San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area, where their other   four children were born.     In the late 1960s Fergie’s work with the U.S. government took the family to Asia and South America, where Carma continued to raise her children and also taught American culture classes to university students. Upon returning to the United States in 1970, the Fergusons settled back in Moraga, California, where Carma continued using her extraordinary talents as a homemaking “rock star” and dedicated wife and mother. She also served the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in various capacities, including Relief Society president, Young Women’s president, and eight years as an early morning seminary teacher. In later years, she also found joy in serving in the temple and in doing family history work. In 2000, two years after the passing of her husband, Carma pulled up her California roots and relocated to Alpine, Utah, where she lived out the remainder of her days.     Carma gave unconditional love to her family and others who entered her orbit. She is survived by her older brother Wendell Hurst, her daughter Adria Evans, and four sons David Ferguson (wife Suzi), Dana Ferguson (wife Elaine), Daniel Ferguson, and Darik Ferguson (wife Melani), as well as 16 grandchildren and 41 great grandchildren.      Carma’s legacy lives on as our hearts reminisce, inspiring us to follow her example and teachings. Among them:  Be playful with your children. Don’t judge, just embrace. Be prepared to listen intently (even when it’s 3:00 am). Never stop searching the scriptures. Teach your children to be kind (even if it means chasing your son with a squished pollywog). Girlish laughs are contagious. Be elegant, classy, regal, and unpretentious.  Use endearing, funny colloquialisms, like "Well, I’ll be darned."   Be a rock star at domesticity. Love temple work. Offer humble wisdom. Dance. Laugh at yourself.   Maintain a speed dial to heaven in order to fulfill family prayer requests. Have the spirit of an optimist. Be a “happy camper.”  Advise couples to talk to Christ often. Display pictures of family. Greet everyone with magnetic excitement; look into their eyes and draw them close.   Take good care of your fingernails.  Soothe others with your singing. Be a fantastic hostess.  Have an explorer spirit, whether traveling or learning.  Find elegance in everyday life. Cook with love, whether oven pancakes, crab rice pilaf, or oatmeal-raisin cookies (while looking gorgeous and wearing heels).  Make Halloween costumes, Christmas stockings, and wonderful birthday parties for your children. Be willing to fast and pray for anyone in dire need of help. Always be helpful. Be a safe port for your children. Be proud of your family. Maintain your femininity, even if your house is full of boys. Have an inquiring mind. Maintain a joyful sense of humor. Be strong and sensitive. Be fearless, whether under martial law in Bogotá, during a typhoon in Taiwan, or walking the streets late at night in Manhattan at 75 years old. Know how to put people at ease, even in a hospital. Be a problem solver, not a problem maker.  Appreciate the beauty around you.   Be a modern-day pioneer with great faith and a strong testimony. Go to the temple (a lot) for anyone in need of help. Have courage, adaptability, and pluck, especially if you need to take yourself, five kids, and one dog 6,000 miles away to live in a foreign country. Listen to musicals. Tell everyone “you’re my favorite.” Have a big heart and make room for everyone in it. Applaud often. Use the temple prayer roll (a lot). Find passion in teaching early morning seminary, both in sharing the scriptures and your love for youth. Have a spirit of enthusiasm. Smile and brighten anyone’s day. Praise others and delight in their presence.   Now she delights in the presence of her Heavenly Father, dances with her beloved Fergie, and celebrates in the welcoming arms of her 'mother' and 'daddy', her siblings, her beloved grandson, and other loved ones who are welcoming her home. May we who still journey find inspiration in her life and her spirit with us. Funeral Services will be held Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 11:00 am at the Alpine 3rd Ward Chapel, 285 North Matterhorn Drive, Alpine, Utah, where a Viewing will be held prior to services from 9:30 to 10:30 am. Interment in Alpine City Cemetery, 400 North Grove Drive, Alpine, Utah. Funeral Directors: Utah Valley Mortuary.