Jerelyn Decker, 92 of Plano, passed away on Wednesday May 18, 2022.

Jerelyn Sorensen Decker was born 11 January 1930, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, to Ruth Mallard Sorensen and Arnold Lewis Sorensen.  She grew up on the family farm in Darby, Teton County, Idaho with her parents and three older sisters.  Jere attended schools in Teton Valley and Idaho Falls.  In high school she played clarinet in the band, marched in the drill team, and studied Latin. She graduated from Idaho Falls High School in 1947 and went to BYU on a full scholarship. At BYU she earned a bachelor's degree in History and English and met her husband, Donald M Decker, a decorated U.S. Marine combat veteran of WWII, from Los Angeles, California.

Don and Jere married 13 June 1951. For the first four years of their marriage, they worked in Grand Teton National Park in the summer. Jere worked for the park service, learned to love climbing mountains, tended her babies, and loved living near family on both sides of the mountains.  Returning to BYU in the winter, she taught Freshman English Composition, learned to sew and knit, and made life-long friends.  After finishing graduate school, Don worked in the aerospace industry and the family moved to Centerville, Utah. In 1966, Don began teaching at Ricks College, now BYU-Idaho, and moved the family to Plano, Idaho. Jere rejoiced in returning home to Idaho. She lived in Plano from 1966 until her death at 92.

Jere was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She was active in the Relief Society, Primary, Sunday School and spent decades involved in the Plano Boy Scout troop. She joined the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (DUP), directed ward plays, and encouraged and facilitated emergency preparedness.  She served a mission in the Texas Houston South Mission.  She loved her family:  children, grandchildren, great-grand-children, cousins, nieces and nephews, and the really-not-related people she welcomed into her home and life.  She also stayed connected with extended family and especially the extended Sorensen clan from Teton Valley and Mallards all over the country.  Jere was a widow for forty years, yet she never wavered in her faith that her marriage and family would continue beyond this life.

Jere was a great teacher. Wherever she was, she taught by word and by example. Her professional teaching included high schools, Ricks College, and BYU.

Her family honors Jerelyn Sorensen Decker as a phenomenal mother whose hard work and dedication to her family provided them with a healthy mostly home-grown diet and made sure they knew how to make bread, thin carrots, milk a cow, and edit their own essays.  She taught us to seek our own understanding and testimonies. She taught us to go to the source. She taught us to seek the facts.  Her interests included everything from ancient history to contemporary politics, and literature to nutrition. She quoted Shakespeare, Martin Luther King, and scripture in everyday conversation.  During the last week of her life, she corrected the grammar of the hospital staff and started knitting a blanket for an unborn great-granddaughter.

Jere was pre-deceased by her parents, sisters Connie, Marian, and Pat, and by her husband Don. She is survived by her nine children. Anna Witesman (Fred), Karl Decker (Marie), Owen Decker (Linda), David Decker (Meghan), Amelia Bahr (David), Sylvia Turley (Gordon), William Decker (Tralina), Donald J Decker, Antonia Clifford (Richard), 38 grandchildren, and 67 great-grandchildren.

The family is deeply appreciative of the professionalism and kindness of the staff of Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg and the Life Care Center of Idaho Falls.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, May 27, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. at the Plano LDS Chapel. The family will receive friends on Thursday from 5:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at Flamm Funeral Home, 61 N. 1st E., Rexburg, and again on Friday from 10:00 a.m. until 10:45 a.m. at the church. Interment will be in the Plano Cemetery.

Services may be viewed at: https://my.gather.app/remember/jerelyn-decker