Connie Soelberg Call

Connie Soelberg Call passed away at her home in St. George, Utah, on December 15, 2025, after a two-and-a-half year battle with pancreatic cancer. She was born January 9, 1950, in Ogden, Utah, the second daughter of Donald Eugene and Kathryn McKinstry Soelberg. When she was three years old, her family moved to Bakersfield, California, where her father took a job as a high school English teacher. She attended East Bakersfield High School where she distinguished herself in vocal performance and drama, starring in several school productions and spending her senior year as a member of the elite Chamber Singers group. When she graduated in June 1968, she was awarded a talent scholarship to attend Brigham Young University. That summer, she began dating her future husband, Michael Call, who had just returned from serving as a missionary for the LDS Church in France and Switzerland. They were married a year later in the Los Angeles Temple on September 6, 1969.

Connie graduated from BYU in April 1973, with a BS degree in Early Childhood Education. After a six-month BYU Study Abroad experience in Paris, she accompanied Mike to Raleigh, North Carolina where he began a two-year term of service as an officer in the US Army. While in Raleigh, she taught kindergarten. When Mike was discharged in February 1976, Connie was pregnant with her first baby, Michael Josiah, who was born in September 1976, just in time for the family to move to the Bay Area, where Mike began a PhD program in French and Humanities at Stanford University. Two more children joined their family during the Stanford sojourn: Adrienne and Douglas Merrill. Since there was a time in her life when she thought she would never have children of her own, Connie considered each of them a true miracle. She decided she wanted to start her own preschool in her home, at first for her own children, and then for additional children of her friends. When the family moved to Utah in 1983, she continued to run a preschool in her home until her own three children were all attending elementary school. She loved teaching little children, especially helping them learn to read. When her fourth child, Matthew, was born, she decided that when he was old enough, she would start up her preschool again to give him the same experience as his older siblings.

Because she was a nurturer at heart, Connie also loved gardening and felt so rewarded for all her hard work when one month her yard was chosen by the City of Orem to receive its Beautification Award.

During the thirty years living in Orem, Connie served in many capacities in the Church--stake Primary president, ward Relief Society president, and gospel doctrine teacher among others--but Primary was always where she wanted to be, with the children, teaching them to love Jesus as she did and instilling in them the desire to be like Him. She was the perfect role model: kind, gentle, and compassionate. When she sang, it was with the voice of an angel.

When Mike retired from BYU in 2013, they moved to a new home in St. George, Utah, and shortly thereafter left to serve an 18-month mission in Tahiti as directors of the Papeete employment center. Connie had total confidence that the Lord would amplify her skill in the language, and from day one she found herself capable of interviewing candidates entirely in French. She also created a curriculum to teach English to Tahitians and was beloved of her students. Connie answered every call to serve with faith and devotion because she loved her Heavenly Father and His children and knew He would make her equal to the task.

She is survived by her husband, Michael; their children Michael Josiah Call (Rebecca), Adrienne Call Lundberg (Derek), Douglas Merrill Call (Christina), and Matthew Anson Call (Brianna); her sister, Ann Pedersen (Mike), her brothers Craig (Gennie) and Kurtis (Terrie); and sixteen grandchildren.

A viewing will be held Friday, Dec. 19, from 11 am to 12 pm at the LDS chapel, 4461 S. Country Club Drive (SunRiver), in St. George. Funeral services will be held Saturday, Dec. 20, at 12:30 pm at the LDS chapel, 762 E. 1200 N., in Orem, preceded by a viewing from 11 am to 12 pm. Interment at the Orem Cemetery will follow the service.