We pay respect to Sandra Jackson Mangelson, who fought a fierce fight with an aggressive and deadly enemy.

To help understand the life and times of Sandra Jackson Mangelson, we wanted to write a few notes about her; her father; her grandfather, and her great grandfather. That is out of high respect to Sandra, who recently passed away after a short but intense battle with an aggressive cancer. Sandra is the daughter of Huck Jackson, who was a much admired Nephi City employee-knowing about all there was to know about the water system set up by pioneers. Huck was also a good teacher, showing Roy Tolley how to take his place, and those cousins were both the cream of the crop. When Huck started a family, he was proud to have Jack Ludlow build a high class home north of his parents house on the corner of 200 East and 400 North. Huck's father was Lynn Jackson, who was a truck driver for both the Utah road dept., then Juab County. Lynn's father was Nephi Jackson, but to his relatives, he was known as "Uncle Nep".  He was only ten years old when he and his family arrived in Nephi. That was in 1856, helping to pull a handcart with the ill fated Martin Handcart Company. He became tough, having to watch many people perish at Martins Cove. He survived that trek, then Nephi thrived in Nephi! As of last week, we found evidence he was a great citizen of the Utah Territory, as we discovered a ledger showing he paid $11.30 in taxes for the year 1892, which was a lot of money back then. We know he had at least 80 acres of land north of Nephi, in the area commonly called the "Meryl McPherson feed yard". Sandra married Paul Mangelson, who was tall and tough as nails, but  was smart enough to know he would have to stand even taller to get the consent of Huck to marry Sandra. Huck liked Paul, and the new Mangelson team  became great parents and highly esteemed public servants. As a teenager, Sandra was a tall and pretty blonde, but with graceful class. When things go slow for teenagers attending church in the 4th Ward, Sandra had a knack for keeping us youngins entertained. After loosing an eleven year old son, Abe Lincoln was heart broken, but when questioned about the unfairness of death, he responded by saying "And to the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years". The families and friends of Sandra should feel comfort to know she lived well, and now free of pain. My guesstimation is when she crossed the threshold, there was a herd of people to greet her, among which were Huck, Lynn and Nephi Jackson.