16 May 1977 – 5 Mar 2025
Husband of Peggy Cardon (4th great-granddaughter of Philip and Martha Cardon)
David Elias Jones, 47, passed away peacefully at his Riverton, Utah home on March 5, 2025, after a two-and-a-half-year battle with pancreatic cancer. David Elias (Eli) was born May 16, 1977, in Downey, Idaho to parents Gary Don Jones and Marsha Lynn Brighton.
When Eli was in the first grade, his family moved to Bothell, Washington where he lived for most of his childhood and teenage years. His youth was spent adventuring in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with Boy Scouts, family, and friends. He practiced Aikido, wrestled and ran cross-country in high school and played trumpet and percussion with the band. His senior year of high school his family moved to Declo, Idaho where he graduated from high school in 1995.
For two years from 1996-1998 Eli served the people of Toronto Canada as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After returning home to Seattle, he married Stefania Voigt. The couple had three children together, Jeremiah, Jacob and Jacey.
While Eli attended college at Idaho State University in Pocatello, ID, he called a number on a poster which claimed he could be paid to learn a new language. This was how he found his calling as a soldier for the US Army. He attended the Defense Language Institute and became an Arabic Linguist. In 2005 he deployed to Iraq as an interrogator, returning shortly before the birth of daughter Jacey.
In 2006 Eli and Stefania were divorced and Eli found himself a single father with three little children. Fortunately, he had wonderful parents who cared for his children when he was deployed to Afghanistan for a year. When he returned, the toughened warrior dedicated himself to his children. While running the Logan Armory as an active-duty guardsman, he took his children to church, helped them with their homework, volunteered for the PTA, coached baseball, basketball, and soccer, and kept house.
In 2010, he connected with an old friend from his Junior High days, Peggy Cardon. After lots of texting, phone calls and some visits, they were married at Christmas time and he became a dad to two more sons, Isaac and Cardon. Peggy and Eli embraced their roles as parents, striving to develop family bonds with and among their children. Blending their family was never easy and there were constant struggles with kids as well as outside pressures. But Eli and Peggy were so in love and happy, they hardly noticed. Nothing was too hard if they were together. Eli was a hands-on father and led his kids on adventurous outings in the mountains, coached their sports teams, and tucked them in at night after wrestle mania and then reading together on the couch. He was a loving husband who put his wife first and he remembered the importance of prayer and having a Christ-centered home.
Perhaps nothing strengthened the family bonds more than the birth of Louisa in 2013 and Gary in 2014. They all shared their love for the little ones. They were a family of nine!
All this time, Eli worked to finish his degree, taking on-line classes from American Military University. In 2014 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies. When little Gary was just a baby, Eli was deployed again to Iraq, his third deployment to the Middle East. It was a true sacrifice because it was such a difficult time to leave his family. After he returned in 2016, the family moved to Idaho Falls to be close to his mother. Two years later in 2018 he was deployed stateside to Ft Meade, Maryland for a year. While he was in Maryland, Peggy packed their camper trailer with kids, food and blankets and drove across the continent to visit Dad. After this last deployment, in 2019, Eli and Peggy moved to Riverton, Utah where he worked at the UT National Guard, primarily in Intelligence and training.
In October 2022, after a weekend of hiking and climbing, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The next 2-1/2 years were filled with surgeries, chemo, radiation, and experimental therapies as he and his dedicated doctors strived to keep him alive. Through ups and downs, hope and disappointment, sickness and pain, Eli showed rare courage and determination. He endeavored to shield his little ones from fear and sorrow and committed himself to living a full life. He bought an Indian Chief motorcycle and rode it to his doctor appointments and medical treatments and gave his kids rides to their lessons. The family traveled to the Redwoods, the Olympic Peninsula, Universal Studios in Florida and the Grand Canyon. He and Peggy went on a cruise to Alaska. He worked on a bucket list which included getting his black belt, visiting different temples, and running a marathon. He ran three half-marathons in 2024, but his declining health prevented the full marathon. When he felt well enough, he would go to Camp Williams and help out the instructors. But most importantly, he played with his kids and attended every performance, competition, promotion, and recital. He loved making memories with them.
Eli was a brave and dutiful soldier who risked his life many times in war zones and combat. He brought that courage and grit home with him. He was determined to stay alive as long as possible and to live life to the fullest. And so he did. Despite the pain and sickness, he took his kids on hikes up into the mountains. He took Peggy dancing and out on dates and to the temple. He took great pride in his ability to make Peggy laugh. He raised capable sons, so they were there to step in and help with home repairs, yardwork and taking Gary on adventures when cancer made it too difficult to do it himself. He taught his daughters to dance, but he also taught them to shoot guns. He told Jacey he wanted her to “be dangerous” and was grinning ear to ear when Jacey won her wrestling matches.
He died as a family man, who had a soft heart and more than a touch of pride for his little ballerina daughter Louisa, who liked singing around the piano in the evening, who loved and cared for his widowed mother, who protected and cherished his wife and who taught his children honor and integrity. Most importantly, he died as a faithful man who trusted God and God’s eternal plan. He told his wife he wanted to follow Christ’s example – that if this was the cup God has given him to drink, he would accept the cup and drink.
Eli is survived by his wife, Peggy Cardon Jones of Riverton, Utah, son Jeremiah JJ (Carolyn), step-son Isaac Canales, son Jacob, step-son Cardon Canales, daughter Jacey, daughter Louisa, son Gary; mother Marsha Jones of Ammon, ID, sister Tristy (Doug) Hagedorn of Winter Garden, FL, Trina (Mark) Kreutz of Platte City, MO, Jennifer Cornelison of Racine, WI and Donald Burton (DJ) of Orem, UT as well as many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his father Gary Don Jones of Ammon, ID (2012) and his stillborn son Joshie (2004).
The funeral will be held at 11:00 AM. on Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Riverton Utah Stake Center, 1855 W 13400 S, Riverton, Utah 84065. A viewing will be held prior to the funeral from 9:30 – 10:45 AM, at the same location. He will be interred with full Military Honors at the Riverton Utah Cemetery.
-Published online at https://www.broomheadfuneralhome.com/obituary/david-jones