JENSEN PIONEER MOTHER DIES MONDAY HERE

Following a serious illness of nine days, Mrs. Mary Ellen Dudley Wilkins, 77, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Douglas Chew Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock. Mrs. Wilkins had been stricken with pneumonia.

Mrs. Wilkins was born February 10, 1866 at Spanish Fork, the daughter of Mary Ellen Packett and Andrew Dudley. She married Albert W. Wilkins in 1897, at Spanish Frok.

The family moved to the Uintah Basin in 1889, locating at Jensen. As a devoted member of the LDS Church, she served as president of the Jensen Primary for many years and an active Relief Society teacher. She was a charter member of the Escalante Camp of the Utah Pioneers and the last surviving pioneer member of the camp.

Surviving are four daughters and four sons, Mrs. Emma Fairfax of Salt Lake; Mrs. Mary M. Collier, Helper; Mrs. Elsie Case and Mrs. Eleanor Chew, Vernal; Melvin Wilkins, George and Harley Wilkins of Jensen; Ertin L. Wilkins of Salt Lake, five brothers and three sisters, Mrs. Guyletta Campbell, Vernal; Mrs. Julina Buctcher of Roosevelt; Andrew and Joseph Dudley, Jensen; Steven Dudley and Homer Dudley, Calgary, Canada; Sanford Dudley, Grand Junction, Colorado; Mrs. Parney Witheral of Boulder, Colorado; Also 24 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren; her husband and three children preceded her in death.

A grandson Sgt. Paul Jean Wilkins was recently killed in a bomber crash and brought to Vernal for burial.

Funeral services will be conducted today (Thursday) at 1 p.m. in the Jensen Ward Chapel under the direction of Bishop Ross Merrill. Burial will be under the direction of the Swain Funeral Home.

-Vernal Express, January 13, 1944, transcribed by Rhonda Holton