Stella Welsh, first elected female mayor of Orem, turns 90

PROVO, Utah (AP) - Stella Welsh knows how to work hard, whether it is picking pears for the Libby’s cannery or deciding the zoning issues of Orem.

Now this everyday hero turned 90 on Monday. Because of current virus situations, she said they won’t be doing much for her birthday, but they are reminiscing.

To residents of Orem, she was their first voted in councilwoman and then first (and so far, only) female mayor. Her friend Joyce Johnson was appointed for a portion of 1991 and Stella beat her in the November election.

Stella was an unlikely candidate for the area - not only is she a woman, but she was also a Democrat. She served Orem from 1992 to 1997. There has not been a woman mayor since. Last year Stella was given the distinction of Democratic Woman of the Year for Utah.

Born April 20, 1930, Stella grew up in Coleville, Summit County, and graduated from North Summit High School. She says she did the average things in high school but her favorite was being a member of the debate club where she says she did fairly well.

She was born as the Great Depression grew but said she was never left wanting.

“We lived on a farm,” Stella said. “We had milk and chickens. I’ve never gone hungry.”

She said that her mother worked full-time but with all that still managed to have a large garden as well.

When just a young woman, Stella fell in love and married Stan Welsh at age 18 and moved to Utah County so Stan could finish school at Brigham Young University where he studied and taught Botany.

Stan and Stella will celebrate their 71st wedding anniversary June 23.

Stella was a stay-at-home, hard working mother of eight children: four girls and four boys. When asked, she couldn’t say how many grandchildren and great-grandchildren she has because that seems to be in a state of constant flux, but she was very happy to say she has her first great-great-grandchild.

So how does a stay-at-home mom become the first woman mayor of the second largest city in Utah County?

“I did a lot with Scouts,” she said. “Attending the City Council is a requirement. As I watched them (the Council), I thought, I could do that.”

And she did.

She was the very first woman to sit in council with the male leaders of the community. If she could do that, then surely she could lead the city as mayor, she thought.

And she did.

Stella’s granddaughter Mandy Griffin recalls a conversation she had with her grandmother.

“Stella and I were discussing relationships once and she said, ‘No matter what other problems your grandfather and I ever had, he always let me be myself. He never tried to make me into someone I wasn’t. He always appreciated who I was. That’s the most important thing in a marriage,’” Griffin noted.

As mayor, Stella was interested in acquiring pieces of property around the city for parks. She was not only interested in what was above the ground, but what was running the city below the ground.

“It was important seeing that the city infrastructure was in good shape and we had adequate facilities,” Stella said.

She admitted that while she was mayor, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called to ask if Orem would be a good place for a temple.

Stella said she told them not now. In short time, the Mount Timpanogos Temple was built in American Fork instead.

She has never stop caring about Orem, its growth and the direction in which it is moving.

“Some things that concern me include multi-family housing,” Stella said. “We have an abundance of apartments.”

She also said she doesn’t like the proliferation of so many electronic signs at University Place at the intersection of University Parkway and State Street.

Stella also helped with the land acquisitions and zoning for the Word Perfect complex at 1200 North. “It was just an orchard,” she said.

If given the chance, Stella said she would do it all again.

“Absolutely I would run again,” she said. “I liked being around good people. It was interesting to me.”

Stella’s daughter, Ruth Chatterly, noted that her mother was always helping someone.

“My favorite thing about mother is and has been her untiring desire to help anyone who needed help including driving old people to their various appointments, while mother was in her 80s,” Chatterly said.

Another daughter, Kathy Welsh, remembers watching her mom in the garden and in the council chambers.

“My earliest memory of mother is watching her supervise the crew picking raspberries in the field behind our house. Mom was asked back year after year because she did a good job,” Kathy Welsh said.

“When I came home on leave while in the army when mom was mayor of Orem,” Kathy Welsh continued, “I would watch as she took phone calls from citizens who had various concerns. It never mattered how early, or how late the calls came, mom always took the time to address the issues that mattered to those callers.”

After her political career came to a close, Stella didn’t stop.

“I had a lot to do with Community Action Service and Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity,” Stella said. “We do what we have to do.”

She continues to meet with a group of long-time friends and they discuss things that are going on in the city, state and nation.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has her concerned. Three of Stella’s daughters work in hospitals around the country.

Stella said although she is concerned for her daughters’ health and well-being, she isn’t worried about herself.

“I don’t mind being dead,” she said. “It’s the getting there.”

Stella also said of having food and being quarantined, “When forced, you can learn to cook.”

Her son Kent Welsh can vouch for his mom’s cooking and hard work ethic.

In a letter he wrote for her birthday he said, “Other things that you taught were how to do housework and work in the yard and garden. Each of those things I learned have continued to allow me to do the things I do today. While I didn’t appreciate at the time those experiences - pulling weeds as an example - even that type of work has become something that I now enjoy.”

Because of what Stella taught him as a boy Kent said, “We haven’t had to buy jam or jelly our entire married life. You certainly epitomize the name ‘mother.’”