Louise Pratt

Louise Pratt
Manti, UT

    Ida Louise Frandsen Pratt passed away of old age and natural causes on June 4, 2023.  She went by her middle name, "Louise."  She had recently had her 95th  birthday, being born May 11, 1928, in Clarion.  She lived in Manti at the time of her death.
    She was the daughter of Peter Lafayette Frandsen, and Ida Caroline Larsen, both of Sanpete County. Her siblings are Ivan Frandsen, Rey Frandsen, Allen Frandsen, Edna Frandsen Bjerregaard, Marian Frandsen Christensen, and Ina Frandsen Midgley.  All were deceased at the time of her death except for her younger sister, Ina.  She grew up on the same farm where she was born in Clarion.  She remembered the German and Italian prisoners of war who were brought to help do the farm labor.  She also had fond memories of a family horse named "Peg."  She graduated from Gunnison Valley High School in 1946, and later graduated from BYU in 1970 with a degree in Music Education, with a teaching certificate.
    She married Samuel Orson Pratt in January of 1947, whom she met while attending BYU.  They had four children: John, Kira, Allen, and Carl; all survived her except Kira, who passed away from cancer in 1997.  
    She didn't immediately graduate from college, as she and Sam began careers of music performance, which included performing with the Utah Symphony, with Sam on the flute, and her on the violin and harp, where eventually she became the Utah Symphony first harpist. Sam later was hired by the Lyon and Healy harp manufacture company, and they then moved several times and lived in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York in conjunction with his employment.  
    In 1964, while living in New York, she and Sam divorced and she moved to Salt Lake City, and eventually three years later to Orem, where she continued her college education at BYU and earned her degree in 1970.  At that time, she taught general music, orchestra, and other subjects in the Jordan School District.  She retired from school teaching in 1990. She was also the BYU Music Department harp instructor for 28 years, until 1995.  She also had many private music students in the violin, piano, and especially, in the harp.
    Her chief personal interests were in her music, music arranging and publishing, music teaching, raising her children, and in continual religious service.  In 1999 she moved to Manti,  where she remained for the rest of her life.  While living in Manti, she met and married Max Bigler, in 2000, whom she dearly loved, but this marriage was short lived, as he was discovered almost immediately to have inoperable brain tumors, which took his life within a year of their marriage.  Her first husband, Sam, also preceded her in death in 1985, due to heart failure.  
    Louise had a deep love for the Prophet Joseph Smith, the restoration, and the gospel of Jesus Christ which led her to Manti to gather with the Saints. She served in music and chorus, taught music lessons to the children of the church to which we were grateful.
    Louise had 19 grandchildren, additional step-grandchildren, and innumerable great-grandchildren.  She will be well remembered in the harp world, for innovative ideas that she put to her husband (Sam), who in turn incorporated these ideas into products of his company, which had a tremendous positive impact on the harp world, and which resulted in many more people taking up the harp than would have otherwise been the case.  
    Music was her soul, her dream, and her life.
    Funeral services will be held on Thursday June 15, 2023 at 11:30 a.m. at the "Wild Acres" reception center, 1239 South 300 East Ephraim.  A viewing will be held prior to services, starting at 10:30 a.m.  Burial will be in the Manti City Cemetery.  Online guestbook at www.maglebymortuary.com.  Funeral Directors: Magleby Mortuary, Richfield, Salina and Manti