Sister Lorna Cox Wood, the widow of Elder Lowell D. Wood, died March 24, 2025, in Taylorsville, Utah. She was 93.
Sister Wood served alongside her husband as he fulfilled Church assignments around the world, including as a General Authority Seventy from 1992 to 1997. They also served as leaders of the South Africa Johannesburg Mission from 1979 to 1982.
Her obituary notes, “She never missed an opportunity to bear her testimony of the gospel.”
Elder Wood was serving as president of the Pacific Area when he died on March 7, 1997, in Apia, Samoa, at age 64.
Lorna Cox was born on Feb. 28, 1932, in St. George, Utah, one of four children born to Melvin Eugene and Harriet Hoyt Cox. She learned hard work and responsibility by helping out at the family-owned department store.
As a young woman, Sister Wood lived at home and worked as a receptionist at the St. George Utah Temple. One weekend she traveled to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, to visit a friend and was introduced to Lowell Wood on a blind date.
“When I went home to St. George,” Sister Wood recalled, “I told my mother I had found the kind of man I wanted to marry” (Ensign, September 1997).
When the two were married on July 8, 1955, Sister Wood sang “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go” (“Hymns,” No. 270) for her fellow temple workers.
In an interview following his call as a general authority, Elder Wood commented that hymn was apropos. “That attribute and willingness has always been present in our lives. We have both tried to do what the Lord wanted us to do,” he said.
Due to career and Church service opportunities, the couple lived in Auckland, New Zealand; Hong Kong; Manila, Philippines; and Sydney, Australia; and traveled to many more countries.
They raised five children and have 17 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.
Following her husband’s death, Sister Wood settled in Salt Lake City, where she could be close to family.
Through the years, she served in a variety of capacities, including in ward Primary presidencies, as a Primary music leader and teacher and as a Relief Society counselor and teacher.
A family history enthusiast, Sister Wood self-published a book about her life in her later years. She enjoyed exploring estate sales, Sunday dinners with family, and attending plays and musicals, according to her obituary.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her siblings, her husband and her daughter Paula Jean Wood Rowberry. She is survived by her children: Kyle Rowberry; Alisa Wightman (Mark); Brett Wood (Allyson); Tony Wood (Cynthia); and R. Scott Wood (Aren); along with 17 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be at the Heritage Park 1st Ward meetinghouse, 4986 S. Valois Drive, Taylorsville, on Monday, March 31, at noon. A viewing will be at Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. South Temple, Salt Lake City, on Sunday, March 30, from 6 to 8 p.m. and again prior to the funeral at the meetinghouse in Taylorsville from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
