Mary Lay

Mary Fritzsche Clements Lay, beloved mother, grandmother, great grandmother (Gigi), sister and friend to all, passed away on Friday, May 6, 2022 surrounded by her loving family.

Mary was born in 1939 in Chicago, IL to Arthur Hugo Fritzsche and Elyce Ann Adams.  Her father was a baker and the family lived above the bakery.  She was the first of three siblings and loved working with her dad in the bakery and sharing treats with her neighborhood friends.  Mary grew up in a very religious family, they were involved in their local church and community.

In 1955, at the age of 17, Mary was introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She immediately felt the church was true and wanted to join.  Her parents however, wanted her to wait until after her first year at Cornell University, to which she agreed.  She continued to investigate the church while attending Cornell and was baptized as soon as she turned 18.  Soon after, she left to attend BYU where she met and married Ray Clements (Rexburg, ID). The couple had four children, Kelley, Mark, Stacie, and Amy.  They lived and raised their family in Pleasant Grove, UT. They were married for 25 years.  In 1990, she married the love of her life, Walter (Walt) Stone Lay, and they were together for seven happy years before Walt passed away due to complications of Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. Mary always lamented that their time together was too short.

Mary served in various leadership callings in the church and was a faithful member to the end of her life.  All four of her children served missions for the church, which was very important to her because she was a convert.  It was her life-long dream to serve a mission and share the gospel with others.  Mary’s favorite calling in the church was teaching Relief Society, but most of all she loved serving and helping others and was so grateful for any opportunity to do so.

Her mother never graduated from college, so her grandmother (Nonnie) made Mary promise that she would. This promise was a great motivating factor in Mary’s life and spurred her on to a life-long love of learning, which she has passed on to her children and grandchildren.  Mary was a graduate of BYU and a beloved schoolteacher for many years.  She won many teaching awards and in 1999 she was awarded “The Golden Apple” in the Alpine School District for being an exceptional teacher.  She later went onto graduate school and got an advanced degree in teaching.  Many of her students have commented over the years that she was the best teacher they ever had.

Mary was a natural leader and started developing that gift at an early age. She served as President of the Methodist Youth Fellowship, was the editor of her high school newspaper, and a student council member.  In college she was a leader in her sorority, and later she served in her children’s schools in the PTA and as a room mother in her children’s classrooms. She was also an avid champion of human rights writing to newspapers about important issues of the time.  She taught her students and her children about the dignity of human life and that kindness and compassion should be extended to all.

In 1980, she started a very successful international business in her home called Intermountain Giftmakers.  It became a family business and involved all of her children, their cousins and her husband Ray, who later left his job to help run the business.

She will always be remembered for her happy, positive attitude about life and her consistent encouragement to all with whom she interacted.  She will be remembered by her grandchildren for her fun-loving nature and her interest in everything they did.

She is survived by her sister Pat Clements (Allen) and her brother Tom Fritzsche (Kay); her three daughters, Kelley Giles (Geret) – Pleasant Grove, UT, Stacie Lindsey (Bryan) – Lehi, UT and Amy Pollock (Rick) – Stansbury Park, UT, and her Native American daughter, Lorna Loy (Elton) – Pleasant Grove, UT.  She had 14 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren whom she loved deeply.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Walt, and her beloved son Mark Raymond Clements (Marianne).

Services will be held at the Mount Mahogany Stake Center (1548 North 900 West, Pleasant Grove, UT) on Monday, May 16^th.  There will be a viewing from 9:30-10:30am.  The Funeral service will begin at 11:00am.  You can also join us on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDX3kTRnf1XdbCr_7wlOI3w