Archives West Finding Aid

Alta LaRee Hill Pehrson (1920-2006) was born to Samuel Forrest and Almena May Morris Hill, in Hunter Utah. She went to various schools, including Hunter, Granger, and Cyprus High School in Magna. As a single woman, she worked as a florist for ZCMI, and at Hotel Utah. She was one of the first usherettes for the Centre Theatre on 3rd South and State. Alta LaRee married Nils Pehrson on June 7, 1941. Together they had three children, Judith LaRee, Neal Eugene, and Mark Joseph. After their marriage, LaRee worked for the US Post Office, and at the Magna J. C. Penny. A few of the true loves of LaRee's life was writing for the Green Sheet newspaper, and serving on various Magna councils and boards. Because of her great love for Magna, LaRee fought for and against things she thought were important to the community. She was instrumental in bringing in the Metropolitan Phone Service, lobbied for the Magna Recreation Center, a free standing public library, the "Save the Ice Rink" campaign, and was part of the committe to incorporate Magna. Conversely, LaRee fought against putting the Salt Lake County garbage dump on the east side of the Oquirrhs, installing a fiber glass plant near Webster School, and kept a poultry feed mill out of town. She also closed a cement plant that was polluting the water, in the Salt Lake and Utah canals. LaRee joined the Magna Chamber of Commerce in 1967, and became their first woman president in 1980. She held that position for six years. At the end of her life, she was still involved with her community, still collecting history and photographs, and evidently, still not being afraid to state her opinion. She died July 12, 2006.