‘Granna Epperson’ honored on KSL High 5

r “Granna Epperson” at Santaquin Elementary School was honored on the KSL High 5 program on Dec. 20. Granna Epperson’s whole life has been dedicated to serving others. She started making patchwork quilts. In the early 1990s, she started counting the quilts she had given to Primary Children’s Hospital, homeless shelters, kindergarten children, Africa and others and has counted more than 971 quilts.

In 1960, Granna Epperson bought the Knit Wits shop for $1,800. Knit Wits was a shop where people came to learn how to knit. Knit Wits became a profitable business. Her talents have blessed many people. Granna Epperson knit a Christmas stocking for every member of her family and has made hundreds more over the years. She has volunteered at many hospitals and in church callings. She served two LDS missions with her husband in St. George, Utah, and Philadelphia, Penn.

Beth Alice Waller Epperson was born on Feb. 17,1927, in Salt Lake City at home in a house on 3300 South in East Mill Creek. She weighed five pounds and was so small she fit in her grandfather’s new boots box. Her parents put Beth on the oven door of the coal stove to keep her warm.

Beth’s family was quite poor. In 1929, all of the banks closed and her dad lost all of his money. They lived on an acre of land, so her Dad grew lots of vegetables and every kind of fruit grown in Utah. He raised three pigs, four chickens and five rabbits. Her mother made all of their clothes, often out of old clothes.

When Beth was 12, her best friend’s mother Phoebe Castleton gathered the Primary girls and taught them how to knit. This was the beginning of a lifelong talent.

Beth married Robert John Epperson on Aug. 29, 1947, in her sorority house at the University of Utah. They were married for 68 years and have two children, Robert and Elizabeth, and 10 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren. Grandpa Epperson passed away in April of 2015.

Granna and Grandpa Epperson traveled the world, visiting 77 different countries. She has had a wonderful, adventurous 89 years.