Louise Plummer

Louise Roos Plummer

1942 ~ 2025

Louise Roos Plummer, artist, writer, professor, mother, grandmother, and wife, died at the age of 82 on March 20, 2025. Born in Utrecht, Netherlands, Loesje immigrated with her parents, Lodewijk and Geertje, and three younger siblings in 1948. They became Louis, Gay, and Louise. She grew up on 8th South in Salt Lake City and was the oldest of nine children.

On June 18, 1964, she married "the smartest boy in the neighborhood," Tom Plummer. A year later, they moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. She spent the next 20 years in Cambridge, Berlin, and the Twin Cities.

After starting college at BYU and the University of Utah, Louise finished her BA and MA in English with a creative writing emphasis from the University of Minnesota. Her master's thesis grew into the manuscript that won the Delacorte Press First Young Adult Novel Contest, launching her career.

In 1985, Tom and Louise bought their dream home on the Provo foothills, and they both started teaching at BYU. Louise taught freshman writing, advanced writing, creative writing, and later team-taught a memoir class through the Honors department with Tom. She published two stories, a children's book, five novels, and two books of essays. She spoke at wards around Utah, stakes around the US, and church and academic conferences worldwide. Her works were translated into several languages, and one story is anthologized in an English textbook in Finland. She also taught at several writers' workshops, often on a volunteer basis. She retired as an associate professor.

Louise was well-read and well-spoken. She reviewed the work of students and family members with Dutch straightforwardness mixed with enthusiasm and encouragement. She cheered their achievements and advanced the creativity and careers of many future authors, professors, and writers across disciplines and generations.

In her spare time, Louise made friends wherever she lived. She endeared people to her with an ability to make them feel loved and special. Her loud laugh and quick wit lit up classrooms, living rooms, and every other room she entered. Her signature big lips smacked L'Oreal 810 Sandstone lipstick onto cheeks in greeting, and she called "Kiss kiss" in farewell. At home, she often watched British and American crime shows and romantic comedies.

She found many more dream homes in SLC, NYC, PEI, Nova Scotia, Oahu, Vienna, and anywhere she had rooms to decorate and Tom to hang curtains and play Scrabble or Parcheesi. When she wasn't moving or decorating a new home, she shopped for them online. In retirement, Louise returned to her first love of visual arts. She and Tom attended watercolor classes and art shows.

She is survived by three brothers and four sisters, her sons and their wives: Jon and Julie, Ed and Dede, Charles and Erica, and Sam and Sarah, her thirteen grandchildren and one great granddaughter. She looks forward to reuniting with Tom, her parents and ancestors, her sister, Joyce, and her granddaughter, Lucy.

Months ago, she had a dream in which Tom asked if she'd like to see the plans for the porch. Now is her chance to edit them.

A memorial service will be held in Louise's honor at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27th Ward, 185 P St, Salt Lake City, UT at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, with an after-party at 2:00 PM.