Rosemary Ravsten

Rosemary Roberts Ravsten died peacefully in Murray, Utah on January 28, 2025 from complications with her heart. She was 79 years old.

Rosemary was born to her mother Mary Alyce Davies Bell in Ogden, Utah on July 16, 1945. Her mother described her as "perfect in every way". Rosemary was a great joy and comfort to her mother. Her father, Captain Albert Izbrand "Pete" Bell, lost his life in a plane crash during a training exercise earlier that year. Her mother married Joseph Dyal Roberts in 1947. They became a family and settled in Sugar City, ID. They raised Rosemary together and gave her a younger brother, Scott. Scott and Rosemary spent a great deal of time together growing up, and enjoyed visiting together in their later years.

Rosemary's childhood was filled with family and friends along with dancing, music and home arts. She attended Utah State University in Logan, Utah and graduated with a bachelor's in fashion design. While in Logan, she met her husband, Milton Ole Ravsten, and they were married in June of 1968.

Milton's career path took him to a small, desert town in California called Ridgecrest. They raised seven children there over the next few decades, but she found the dry barren heat difficult compared to the fields, trees and snowy winters of Idaho. She never stopped missing Idaho.

Rosemary loved the home arts and enjoyed all aspects of creating a home for her family. Cooking, sewing, canning, setting the table and eating meals together, planning fun parties and activities, teaching her kids skills and goal setting, playing games, planning vacations, and making Christmas gifts were all things she enjoyed. She also worked hard to have daily family scripture study and prayers, and she encouraged and supported her children in dance, music, sports and other activities. Rosemary was a master at managing her time.

While raising her family, she worked hard to further her artistic talents and found fulfillment in her artwork. She was a member of the Sierra Craft Guild for many years. This allowed her to expand her creative skills in quilting and wearable art. Rosemary also participated in fashion shows at Bazaar del Mundo in San Diego, CA on many occasions. The group of artists at Bazaar Del Mundo matched her style and energy for art. She was very pleased the year she took third place with her design. Over the years, her pieces and collections were exhibited at museums and shows in Ridgecrest, San Diego, and Salt Lake City with her last show being a wearable art collection exhibited in the Art Museum of Eastern Idaho.

Rosemary employed her sewing skills on many other occasions making prom dresses for her daughters and costumes for Halloween or community events.

But Rosemary wasn't just a good seamstress. She was also a good cook, a dancer and a teacher. She liked the challenge of cooking and took time to learn how to make things well. She choreographed dances for many different occasions. Most notably, she choreographed and taught dances to children for a yearly 4th of July celebration in her community for many years. She and Milton also enjoyed square dancing together.

A teacher at heart, she found many opportunities to teach. She taught cooking classes in her community and at church, and volunteered her time to teach art in elementary schools. She enjoyed teaching Gospel Doctrine courses at church and really loved teaching seminary classes for the high school kids. She was always striving to get people thinking from a different perspective with her unique style.

Rosemary's testimony of Jesus Christ was firm and consistent throughout her life. During a time when she was bed bound after back surgery and feeling very low, she looked out the window to see it was snowing in her desert town. She felt those delicate snowflakes were a miracle and fell gently just like blessings from Heaven. She later wrote a song she called Snowflakes with a tune that came to her during that experience.

Rosemary and Milton retired in Rexburg, ID in the early 2000s. They opened a quilt shop in 2006 fulfilling one of Rosemary's life-long dreams. She created a cozy, creative space for people to shop and work on projects. When the shop closed in 2011, she was sad, but also relieved, because it was a lot of work. Rosemary also cared for her aging parents during this time.

Rosemary and Milton were married for 56 years. She is survived by her only brother, Scott Roberts (Georgann), 7 children, 20 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren (with more on the way): Jennifer and James Kirkham, Brian and Lindsay Ravsten, Rebecca and Scott Wilde, Annamarie Ravsten, Johanna and Gabriel DeOliveira, Jefferson and Julie Ravsten, Melissa and Matt Meng.

A viewing will be held at the Flamm Funeral Home on February 9th, 2025 from 5 - 7 PM MST. Funeral services will be held at the church on 612 S Hidden Valley Rd, Rexburg, ID on February 10th 2025 at 11 AM MST.