Linda Lee West Jensen Obituary

Linda West Jensen, 35, was born December 26, 1941 in Ogden, Utah to Leo and May Donaldson West.  She grew up among loving cousins and her younger sister Sandra in Ogden Utah.  She attended Primary in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  

With her parents, she moved to Manhattan Beach, California in 1954 where she fell in love with the ocean and the beach.  She was instrumental in activating her family in the church, culminating in their being sealed in the Los Angeles Temple in May 1957.  She enjoyed participating in the Young Women’s incentive programs and Road Shows at church.  She played various sports in the Girls Athletic Association at Forest Beggs Junior High School and Mira Costa High School.

In the summer of 1958 she moved to Reseda, California with her family.    Here she completed the requirements to earn her Young Women’s (Church) award.  She performed on the Drill Team and played sports in the Girls Athletic Association at Reseda High School. 

She married Gary Alvin Jensen on December 2, 1960 in the Los Angeles Temple, a few months after graduating from Reseda High School.  She loved and nurtured her 4 children, first living in Reseda, then Canoga Park, and finally in Simi Valley, California.

She served in the Young Women’s and Activities Committee in Santa Susanna Second Ward (Congregation.)  She made everything fun for the girls attending Girls Camp and playing Youth Basketball.  She was an excellent seamstress and crafter, a bookworm and movie fan, and a devoted wife and mother.  Spending time with people trumped all other activites.  Many times she opened her loving home to needy children and youth.

In the summer of 1974. when her youngest child began attending school, Linda enrolled in Moorpark Community College to pursue her passion for learning.  She attended classes in spite of her grueling cancer treatments.  She was named to the Deans’ list the week she died.

In January 1977 she was diagnosed with an advanced stage Inflammatory Breast Cancer.  Following  surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, she seemed cured.  After a sudden onslaught of symptoms, she died on July 4, 1977 of Inflammatory Cancer of the brain, traced to the original cancer.  

She is survived by her husband Gary Alvin Jensen, children Elizabeth (Liz), Melanie, Stacey and Paul; parents Leo and May West of St. George, Utah, sister Sandra West (Larry Mitchell), and many cousins, aunts, uncles and nieces and nephews.  

Funeral services will be at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 5028 Cochran Street, Simi Valley, California.  Internment will follow at Glen Haven Cemetery, 13017 Lopez Canyon Rd Sylmar California.

(Although this reads as if it was written at the time of her death, I wrote it after I finished writing her biography, Sunshine Makes Me Happy, a couple of years ago.   As far as I know, no contemporary obituary exists.  Melanie Jensen Johnson)