Anne Farnsworth Clement

09/19/1943 - 08/25/2025
Service Date: 05/09/2025
Service Time: 11:00 am
Service Location: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 26023 S. Lemon Avenue, Queen Creek, AZ 85142
Visitation Date: 05/09/2025
Visitation Time: 10:00 am
Visitation Location: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 26023 S. Lemon Avenue, Queen Creek, AZ 85142
Interment: Gilbert Memorial Park
Anne Farnsworth Clement graduated quietly to the next life on Monday, August 25th, 2025, holding hands with Richard, her sweetheart of 60+ years.
Anne was born on September 19, 1943, to Dean Burton and Grace Bateman Farnsworth. Her father was stationed in Washington DC during WWII, and Anne always felt honored to have been born at Walter Reed Hospital, the hospital of the presidents.
Anne loved to recount that at the tender age of ten months, she gained notoriety when the newspapers in Utah printed the following prediction: "GRANDFATHER SURE TO WIN ELECTION!" It was completely accurate. Anne's grandfathers ran against each other for the post of State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Utah. And sure enough, one of them did win. Grandpa Bateman beat Grandpa Farnsworth and held the post until his death in 1960.
Despite typical rough patches, Anne generally loved school and became involved in a variety of extracurricular activities–which did not include athletics. (She did win a hopscotch competition in elementary school.) Music, however, became a life-long passion. She began taking piano lessons at the age of eight and played all her life. Her vocal career started very early; as a tiny toddler she began singing–pitch and word perfectly–the songs her parents taught her. Her beautiful soprano voice blessed so many as she sang solos in school assemblies, at dances, in choirs, and at church.
In 1959, Anne's father was offered a two-year opportunity to be part of a joint U.S. Government/BYU project to help set up library systems in Iran. It was a life-changing experience. Knowing that this kind of chance might never come again, Anne's parents took the family through some of the Far East on the way to Iran and through much of Europe on the way home, exposing them to people, places, cultures, and experiences that both stretched and enriched them all.
The most important blessing that came from those two years in Iran, however, was Richard. Anne attended an international high school in Tehran, and at the beginning of her senior year, Richard began attending there as well. Richard was immediately attracted to Anne. She took some convincing, but after a long distance courtship, and some ups and downs,
Anne and Richard were married on January 19, 1965, in the Salt Lake Temple.
Anne graduated from BYU with an English teaching degree and a music minor and began teaching English at a junior high school in Provo. (She returned to teaching much later and taught an additional 15 years.)
Anne and Richard prayed and waited anxiously to begin their family, and those prayers were finally answered when Steve was born on August 25, 1969, and joined their family just a few days later. In her personal history, Anne wrote, "Stephen was such a wonderfully good baby, a real blessing for such a nervous mother. By the time he was two weeks old, he slept through the night. During his first two years, he was so good-natured and passive that I began to wonder about his intelligence. Now I believe he was quietly planning his future!"
After Richard completed his masters in German in 1970, the family moved to Mesa, AZ, where he had accepted a teaching opportunity at Mesa Community College. Arizona has been their home ever since.
On July 30, 1973, Kristin Anne Clement was born. She joined the family just days later. Anne wrote, "I quickly developed a deep love for Kristin. I remember thinking several times during her growing up that I cherished her so much that I sometimes felt physically overwhelmed–almost like I'd explode."
Church service was very high on Anne's list of priorities. She led the singing, taught, served in auxiliary presidencies, was a consistent and caring ministering sister, and served as a missionary with Richard in Germany. But her absolute favorite calling was ward choir director. She did it several times throughout her life, did it well, and loved it!
Anne was a voracious reader, a writer, a gifted seamstress, a knitter and crocheter, a quilter, and she did beautiful hand work. She was a good neighbor, a loyal friend, a doting aunt, a loving sister, a devoted daughter, an all-in mother, an over-the-moon-in-love grandma and great-grandma, and an eternally committed wife to her beloved husband, Richard.
Anne had a fervent and enduring testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. There would have been no doubt in her mind as she began her journey through the valley of death a few weeks ago that the end of that walk, whenever it took place, would lead her home to reunite with departed friends and family, her parents, her Savior, and, ultimately, her Father in Heaven.
Anne is survived by her husband, Richard; her children Steve Brendan MacLear, Kristin (Jim) Despain; grandchildren Dalee (Tyler) Glassford, Jaden Despain, Elyse (Jacob) Petersen; and great-grandchildren Callen, Adlee, Ellie, and Holden Glassford; Bradley and Carter Petersen; and siblings Kent (Holly) Farnsworth, David (Maryruth) Farnsworth, Alison (David) Koralewski, Paul (Elizabeth) Farnsworth, and Marilyn (Mark) Jenson.
Funeral services will be Friday, 9-5-2025, 11 AM, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building located at 26023 S. Lemon Avenue, Queen Creek, AZ 85142. There will be a brief gathering at 10 AM, prior to the funeral service to pay respects to her husband, Richard, and her family. She will be interred at Gilbert Memorial Park, in Gilbert, AZ.