Berniece Margaret Cronquist

Berniece Margaret Cronquist, 70, returned to the loving arms of her Heavenly Father on
January 12, 2024, after a valiant battle with cancer. She was a pillar of strength for all of us and everyone that knew her. She was an amazing wife, sister, aunt, mother, grandma, great grandma, and very special “Grandma Grapes”
Berniece (Bernie, known by all her friends) was born in Kenora, Ontario, Canada on June 15th, 1953. She was the daughter of Frank and Berniece Wickham. She spent her early childhood in rural Canada in a house built by her father with no indoor plumbing. She spent all her time outdoors, often without shoes of her own choice.
She attended school in a one-room schoolhouse with all six grades in one room. She and her siblings would walk a mile to school but only once the temperatures reached above -50*
Her family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1957, prompting a move to Utah in the fall of 1962. They settled in North Logan where she learned to love horses, a love affair that continued for the rest of her life. She graduated from Sky View High School in 1970 and participated in many activities including choir. Mom had an amazing voice and loved to sing. She taught us all to love music and to enjoy singing.
She was married to her best friend Lyle Kim Cronquist Sr on June 3rd, 1978, in beautiful Smithfield Canyon where they lived for 45 years. Later their marriage was sealed for time and all eternity in the Logan LDS Temple on November 4th, 2023. While raising their six kids together they spent their time training and racing cutter horses, winning three state titles in Pocatello, Ogden, and competing in the world finals in Elko, NV.
She retired from Herff Jones in 2016 after 30 years making many lifelong friends that she remained close to.
Berniece will always be remembered for her amazing smile, witty sense of humor, and love for all animals, especially her sweet dog Sassy, whom she took everywhere with her. She absolutely loved fishing and out fished all of us on many occasions. Her favorite place to vacation was Jackson Lake and camping anywhere in the pines. You could always count on Mom to pack enough food to feed an army for a month no matter where we went, even if it was for 2 days. Mom always cared for everyone around her and thought of others before herself. She was a great example of accepting people for who they are and seeing the good in all. She loved all her family more than anything in the world and was always planning the next event for all of us to get together and create great memories. Oh, and food, lots of food.
Berniece was preceded in death by her parents Frank and Berniece Wickham, older sister Deanna Wickham, younger brother Monte Todd Wickham, brothers-in-law, Terry Kidd &
Sherm Andersen & a sister-in-law, Ronda Cronquist
Berniece is survived by her loving husband Kim Cronquist. Brothers, Bill (Darlene) Wickham, Scotty (Juanita) Wickham, Donald Wickham. Sisters, Gloria Kidd, Marie (Marv) Forsythe. Children,
Troy Cronquist, Casey (Kory) Leishman, Cody (Jessi) Craw, Jeremy (Jackie) Cronquist,
Cami (Dylan) Graves, Kim (Misty) Cronquist, 28 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and many extended families she loved as her own.
The family would like to thank the many doctors and nurses who cared for Mom over the past 5 years at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, January 20th @ 11 am with visitation from 10 am-11 am at the Smithfield 7th Ward Church Smithfield.