Kent Carpenter

Samuel Kent "Slick" Carpenter, 94, passed away at the Southern Utah Veterans' Home in Ivins, Utah, on April 30, 2014, after spending his final hours in mortality with his family. He was born in Kanab, Utah, on June 19, 1919, the third of five children born to Samuel James and Margaret Cutler Carpenter. Weighing nearly 13 pounds at birth, he was so large the attending physician decided it was necessary to sacrifice the baby to save the mother and proceeded to fracture the not-so-tiny child's skull. Showing a resilience that would characterize his later life, Kent decided to live anyway.

Kent married Ines Esplin from Orderville, Utah, on February 28, 1948, in Cedar City, Utah. Ines had a son, Dennis Crofts, from a previous marriage; Kent and Ines had two sons, Sam and Kerry.

Kent's youth was marked by the Great Depression and he spent much of it with his father herding sheep and cattle in and around southern Utah. He took his first real job at the age of 10, herding dairy cows for the "BAC," and kept working thereafter. In 1941, he enlisted in the newly formed Army Air Corps, serving from 1941 until 1945 as a "tool and die maker" stationed primarily in remote locations in the South Pacific and Philippines

After WW II, Kent returned to southern Utah where he met and married Ines, started a family, and spent most of his working life selling automobiles for Lunt Motor Co. In 1955 he moved his family from Cedar City to Kanab, working there until his retirement and making innumerable friends and loyal customers over a large area.

Kent was always active in Kanab community activities and political leadership. He served a four-year term as the mayor of Kanab (1971-74) and eight years (1963 to 1970) on the Kane County School Board, four years as president. He helped organize the first Tri-City Little League, and, in 1960, while serving as president of the Lions Club, was instrumental in bringing the first television signals into the Kanab/Fredonia communities.

Kent and Ines spent many joyful and noisy times in Kanab and on Cedar Mountain with their family, building memories of "happy hours," campfires, Dutch ovens, accordion and harmonica music, and watching the deer at the salt lick. Ines went ahead to get their mansion cleaned up on June 11, 2013, and Kent has missed her terribly ever since. Let the celebration begin!

The family gives special thanks to Malynda Tait, granddaughter, and to the amazing people at the Southern Utah Veterans' Home in Ivins for the loving care they gave Kent and his family, and to CNS Hospice for their gentle influence in the waning hours of Kent's life.

Survivors include sister Carmen (Jay - deceased) Fisher; sons Dennis (Patricia) Crofts of Orderville, Samuel K. (Trina) Carpenter of Kanab, and Kerry (Beverly) Carpenter of Enoch; sixteen grandchildren, 37 great-grandchildren and 22 great-great-grandchildren. Kent was preceded in death by his parents, wife Ines, and his brothers Scott, Paul and Don, and by a grandson, Adam Carpenter.

Following a family gathering and viewing, graveside services will be held on March 3, 2014 at 3 PM in the Kanab City Cemetery. Services were arranged with Mosdell Mortuary