Georgia Garff Owens
1943-2022
Salt Lake Cit UT-Georgia Garff Owens, 79, died peacefully at home surrounded by family on December 13, 2022 after a short illness. She was spirited and cheerful. She’s never met a person who wasn’t a potential boyfriend, a circumstance that wasn’t potentially funny, or a recipe that wasn’t potentially wrong. She was a devoted disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Georgia was born on September 25, 1943 in Salt Lake City to Mark Brimhall Garff and Gertrude Ryberg Garff and their lives would never be the same. She graduated from Highland High School in 1962, where she lit up acting classes and dismayed the neighborhood by cruising around full of friends in her mighty red Jeep convertible.
She made her way to the University of Utah, where, with a flair for the dramatic, she graduated with a BA with a theater major. She promised Kappa Kappa Gamma and formed lifelong friendships.
After graduating, she was a broadcast journalist at KSL and had her own short television show. In the fall of 1968, she moved to California to work for NBC in San Francisco, reporting live on many of the day’s major stories and events.
There she met the love of her life, David R. Owens, a San Francisco attorney who says he saw her on television before they met in person. His life was changed forever. They were married on March 15, 1969 at the Oakland California Temple. After a few years in San Francisco, where Georgia rode the cable car to work and David walked to the law firm, they moved to Walnut Creek, California, where they raised their six children in an area they loved. In November 2011, they moved to Salt Lake City.
She loved being at the family cabin near Hebgen Lake, Montana, picking wildflowers with grandchildren, making delicious English toffee—a favorite of family and friends—giving thoughtful and unexpected gifts, and offering unsolicited advice To give. Her wit was razor sharp and her heartfelt generosity was felt by everyone she came in contact with.
Despite her successful career, she considered her greatest achievement to be a dedicated wife and mother. She will be missed by all, but the light she ignited in everyone she met will never be extinguished.
She is survived by her husband David; their children David (Anne), Margaret Hill (Chris), Mark, Richard (Becki); Wendy Leatham (Bron), Samuel (Gina), twenty-one grandsons and one grandson by marriage; also a brother Bill Garff (Karen) and sisters Charlotte Jacobsen (Ted) and Laura Lewis (Bob) and sister-in-law Judy Tidwell (Jeff). She was predeceased by her parents, her brother Mark R. Garff and nephews Ben Jacobsen and Daniel Garff.
The viewing will be at Wasatch Lawn, 3401 Highland Drive, Millcreek, Utah on December 22, 2022 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and again on December 23 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. before the 11:00 a.m. funeral :00 p.m. at Crestview Ward 2795 E Crestview Drive, Salt Lake City.
The funeral will be streamed live on Zoom
Published by Deseret News on December 18-21, 2022.
34465541-95D0-45B0-BEEB-B9E0361A315ATo plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
