LAYTON, Earline

Meldrum Mortuary & Crematory, Mesa, Arizona Earline Cluff Layton October 1, 1916 ~ November 24, 2013 Earline Cluff Layton, 97, passed away on November 24, 2013, in Mesa at the home of Kent and Dottie Layton. She was born October 1, 1916, in Pima, Arizona, the eldest child of Earl Cluff and Freda Elizabeth Lines. She grew up in Pima where she attended elementary school, high school and junior college, excelling in her studies and in music and drama. She was one of the few sister missionaries of her day, serving in the California Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After her mission she worked at KGLU, the first radio station in the Gila Valley. Besides being secretary and receptionist at the station, she wrote and read a regular Sunday broadcast and provided the daily weather report. In 1939 she married H. Delmar Layton in the Mesa Arizona Temple. They lived throughout the state: Safford, Holbrook, Tucson, Flagstaff , finally settling in Mesa in 1949. Earline leaves her family a legacy of service and faithfulness in the LDS Church. She used her teaching, writing and leadership talents in ward and stake auxiliaries. She wrote and directed road shows and plays, organized many ward dinners and was serving as food chairman for Maricopa Stake Girls Camp at age 75. With her husband, she relished the opportunity to serve a full-time mission for the Church at the San Diego Mormon Battalion Visitors Center. She was a skilled homemaker, excelling in sewing, crafts, cooking, baking and carpentry. Earline is preceded in death by her husband, Delmar; her parents; 6 siblings, a daughter-in-law, Lin Layton and great grandson Damien Layton. She is survived by her daughter, Patricia (Ronald) Cundick, and sons Daryle (Vicki), Kent (Dottie) and Brant (Melinda) Layton; 30 grandchildren and 83 great grandchildren; and by her brothers Eldred and Coran Cluff and her sister Cora Burgess. Funeral services will be on Saturday, December 7 at 10:00 a.m. at the Vineyard Ward, 1054 W. 2nd Pl., Mesa, Arizona. A viewing will be held one hour earlier, at 9:00 a.m. and on Friday night from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Meldrum Mortuary, 52 N. Macdonald, Mesa. The family suggests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Perpetual Education Fund of the LDS Church. Arrangements are by Meldrum Mortuary, www.meldrummortuary.com.