Priscilla Witker Sunday passed away peacefully at Sunrise Senior Living in Chandler on Saturday, June 8th, 2019, just 4 days following her and her husband’s 59th wedding anniversary.Priscilla was born on August 18, 1939, in Toledo, Ohio, the fourth child of Lawrence Chester Witker and Myrle Eloise Wilbur. Priscilla grew up on a farm just outside of Swanton, Ohio. She played the Alto Saxophone in the Swanton High School Band, and played the piano accompanying several of the glee clubs. Priscilla was a staunch Swanton Bulldog Football Fan and a very avid Ohio State Buckeye Football Fan. She was also an accomplished bowler in several leagues for many years.
Priscilla met her future husband, Larry, in the second grade where he proposed to her in writing. A story she loved to tell everyone. They dated in high school and when he proposed the second time she accepted and they were married on June 4th 1960, in Swanton, Ohio. On the evening of their wedding, her grandmother, Leah Wilbur, came to Larry holding the second grade note in which he proposed stating, “I am glad to see that you are finally going to honor this.”
Priscilla loved Christmas and decorated her home very festively and baked a myriad of Christmas cookies from her grandmother’s recipes. She was an amazing cook. She was a very caring and dedicated wife and mother. She loved her family and recently said, “I wouldn’t trade them for anything ever. I want to keep them forever”. She dearly loved her 4 grandchildren and she never missed any of their birthdays, baptisms, school concerts, or graduations.
In 1975, Priscilla and her family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Toledo, Ohio. Many of the missionaries of the church in the Toledo area thought of her as “mom” as she was always feeding and helping them. Late in 1976, she and her husband relocated the family to Tempe, AZ, in an effort to eliminate his asthma. They made many new friends and became an active part of life in Arizona.
Priscilla was in retail sales for most of her working career. She worked for The Broadway, Macy’s, Nordstrom and Kohl’s for nearly 30 years, retiring in 2017. Priscilla was a very sweet and kind lady. She was also very patriotic; she flew the United States flag in front of the house every day and night. It was dramatically lit, and she loved it!
She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother and sister. She is survived by her husband, Larry Sunday; their two children, Deborah (Jay) Kristofferson of Chandler and Timothy (Cheri) Sunday of Tempe, her four grandchildren, two brothers, and a sister.
The family would like to thank her good friend, Carol, and her wonderful caregiver, Jackie, for their love and support of Priscilla.
Funeral services will be at 11:00 AM Monday, June 17th at the Ahwatukee Chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4525 E Knox Road, Phoenix, AZ with a viewing for family and friends beginning at 10:00 AM.
Priscilla and Larry were a long time friends of my first wife and myself. We first met in November 1976 when she and Larry moved into an apartment in the same complex that we had moved into in August 1976. Both families got together for Thanksgiviing and New Yeats of 1976 and we continued our friendship and the New Years celebration every year together from that time on until shortly before my wife passed on in 2001. Larry found the first house we owned in Tempe, sold it, helped us find our second home and sold that for my self and my second wife when we moved to Utah in 2008. What wonderful friends they were. Priscilla was a wonderful lady and I and I am honored to have known her as a friend for over 32 years. She will be missed.
Dear family and loved ones, please accept my sincere condolences for your loss. It has helped me and many others to know that the Bible promises that soon God “will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8) and that He will bring about a resurrection of our dear loved ones (John 5 : 28, 29) . May “the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort,” comfort you during your time of sadness. (2 Corinthians 1: 3)
Dear Sweet Friends: We marvel in the peace and joy that can come through the promises of the Lord ~ we find that we are so very thankful for the blessings we are given in his Gospel. My husband Jay & I moved to Tempe, Arizona in 1985 and we found our first rental home through an ad Larry had put in the newspaper. We lived for 8 years in the Temple 9th Ward and felt so blessed in the special people living in that ward. Larry is a fantastic organ player & was always so dedicated in creating a carefully accurate performance; he practiced until it was perfect. I directed music for sacrament meeting and so appreciated this association. He did not want to play anything that had not been practiced until perfect so did not like to change that the last minute. However, once in a while a speaker’s talk was amazing in the need to match a closing song to a hymn; I would feel this need & look at him & he would usually non his head & I would give a note to those conducting the meeting & they would announce the change. Because of this music, we have been friends for 34 years – WOW – that is a long ‘gift’. Priscilla was/is a wonderful lady & we felt blessed to know them. The blessings we have been given by the Lord for the hereafter and as with her, my sweet husband of 63 years will be waiting for us. May you continue to feel of His Spirit in or life.
You will be missed! The honor was all mine. Rest in God’s Grace.