18 Aug 1914 – 23 Jan 2004
Great-grand-daughter of Philip Cardon and Martha Marie Tourn
Grand-daughter of Thomas Barthelemy Cardon and Lucy Smith
Daughter of Phillipe Vincent Cardon and Leah Ivins
Lucy Elizabeth Cardon Rampton passed away quietly on January 23, 2004 at HCA St. Mark’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, after sudden heart failure.
Her death ends a long and devoted career as scholar, wife, mother, grandmother, and tireless public servant, including twelve years as First Lady of the State of Utah from 1965 to 1976.
She and husband Calvin L. Rampton have continued their active lives together until the very end, celebrating Cal’s 90th birthday with family and friends in November of last year.
Lucybeth was born to Leah Ivins Cardon and Phillip Vincent Cardon in Washington, D.C. on August 10, 1914, the great-granddaughter of Utah’s earliest settlers. She grew up and attended school in Logan, Utah, receiving her B.A. degree from Utah State University. She later met and married her inseparable companion of 63 years, Calvin L. Rampton, on March 10, 1940, establishing a partnership eventually known to most Utahns as Lucybeth and Cal – shorthand for dedication to the State and devotion to family.
Next to her love affair with Cal and her commitment to family, Lucybeth’s greatest passion was learning. She earned her master’s, and was later awarded an honorary doctorate in anthropology from the University of Utah. She was active in the Department of Anthropology for most of her adult life leading up to, and in part including, her years of service to Utah. In addition, she taught for two years at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. Her fascination with archaeology, anthropology and most particularly the pre-Colombian Americas served as her shelter, therapy, touchstone and point of perspective until her death. She rarely missed the opportunity to boast that the name of each of her four children is now followed by a doctoral degree.
There was fierce passion, too, in Lucybeth’s dedication to social and public causes. Both during and since Cal’s years of public service, she championed women’s rights, including the Equal Rights Amendment, Planned Parenthood, and – most significantly – the rights and dignity of the mentally ill. This cause, a direct outgrowth of her own years-long battle with clinical depression, where she acted both as unapologetic advocate and self-styled guinea pig in the development of treatments, eventually resulted in her name being placed on the rebuilt Utah State Mental Hospital in Provo, Utah.
Lucybeth spoke her beliefs clearly and fearlessly – yet always with the disarming grace and caring which defined her life. Her grandchildren consider one of Lucybeth’s greatest legacies to be the courage to speak their convictions.
Throughout their long life together, Lucybeth and Cal were travelers. Both affairs of state and personal interest took them to Russia, China, Burma, Palestine, Iran, France, Italy, and more than 20 voyages to their beloved Southern England.
Lucybeth is survived by her husband, Gov. Calvin L. Rampton; brother Phillip; sister Margaret; children Janet Rampton Warburton, Anthony L. Rampton and Vincent C. Rampton. She was predeceased by her oldest daughter, Margaret Rampton Munk, in 1986. Lucybeth and Cal also boast 16 grandchildren and, at present, six great-grandchildren.
Friends and family are invited to call at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary, located at 3401 South Highland Drive in Salt Lake City, on Tuesday morning, January 27, 2004 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Services will be held at the same location beginning at noon. Interment will follow at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, well-wishers are urged to contribute generously, either to the National Association of Mental Illness – Utah Chapter, or to the University of Utah Museum of Natural History.
Published in the Deseret News from 1/25/2004 – 1/26/2004.
Deseret Morning News, Sunday, January 25, 2004
Lucybeth Rampton, 89, dies
Deseret Morning News
Lucybeth Cardon Rampton, wife of former Utah Gov. Calvin L. Rampton, died Friday. She was 89.
The former first lady passed away at St. Mark’s Hospital from heart failure. She is survived by her husband, Utah’s longest serving governor, a Democrat who headed the state for 12 years from 1965-77.
Mrs. Rampton was considered a woman of great warmth and vitality. She could also be described as a teacher, mother, hostess, civic leader, preservationist and scholar — one of the most admired and honored women in Utah’s history.
“She was a gracious lady,” said J.D. Williams, a retired University of Utah political science professor and longtime supporter of Gov. Rampton.
“Receptions at their splendid home . . . were delightful occasions. She was so graceful and so friendly that all of us would come away feeling personally rewarded by the association with her.”
Mrs. Rampton was a motivating force in the advancement of the arts, the preservation of Utah’s pioneer heritage and an advocate for the mentally disabled and mentally ill.
“She was a champion of education, she was a champion of women’s rights . . . and above all else she tackled the issues of mental illness,” said Vincent C. Rampton, one of her three surviving children. “She grew up in a generation when you didn’t talk about the mentally ill. You put them away.
“She coped with her own battles with clinical depression for years and years before they even knew what it was.”
Her father, P.V. Cardon, was president of Southern Utah State College from 1932-33. Her grandfather, Anthony W. Ivins, was a counselor to President Heber J. Grant in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
She was born Aug. 18, 1914, in Washington, D.C., and attended junior and senior high schools in Logan.
Rampton dancing with her husband Gov. Calvin L. Rampton, on Jan 5, 1965
Mrs. Rampton attended Utah State and George Washington universities, earning a bachelor’s degree in speech and English from Utah State in 1936. She worked in Washington, D.C., as a legal secretary to Ernest L. Wilkinson, later the president of Brigham Young University. She met her husband in the nation’s capital, where he was an attorney. They married in 1940.
She earned a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Utah in the late 1950s and later authored a book on anthropology. She also taught a class in anthropology at Westminster College.
Mrs. Rampton and her husband enjoyed traveling. They visited Burma, China, France, Iran, Italy, Palestine and Russia and took more than 20 trips to their favorite locale, southern England.
Active in politics for more than 24 years, she worked on all of her husband’s election campaigns. She supported the Utah Historical Society and helped create both the Governor’s Committee on Historical and Cultural Sites and the State Antiquities Committee. Anasazi State Park in Boulder was created in part through her efforts.
“Lucy was an outstanding first lady,” Williams said. “She and Gov. Rampton were together in most of his political venues. Her smiles and laughs came with ease, and they helped to make political scenes full of good humor and warmth.”
Williams, who called Mrs. Rampton a “classy woman,” taught all four of her children at the University of Utah.
“They were living testimonies . . . of the wonderful parental leadership that Lucybeth and Cal provided,” he said. “We will miss her desperately.”
A funeral will be held Tuesday, Jan. 27, at noon at the Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary, 3401 S. Highland Drive. Friends and family are invited to call at 10:30 a.m. at the same location.
Instead of flowers, the family requests contributions be made to either the Utah chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill or the University of Utah Museum of Natural History.(For pdf, click here.)
Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah
