Utah's oldest woman dies at 109

Mary Isabelle Kay Snarr, 109, believed to be Utah's oldest woman and the second oldest person in the state, died June 25, 1997, at St. Joseph's Villa in Salt Lake City.

She died two days short of Gov. Mike Leavitt's annual Utah Centenarian celebration, where she was to be honored as the oldest woman in the state.Known to friends and family as "Belle," Mrs. Snarr had been a resident of the health-care facility since early 1993. She was born April 30, 1888, in Omaha, Neb., and came to Salt Lake City with her parents, Bridgette Agnes O'Connor and Joseph Daniel Kay, when she was 8 years old.

She had lived in Utah's capital city since that time. She was a secretary-treasurer and bookkeeper for her late husband, James Thomas Snarr, when he owned Acme Printing and Stamp Co. and was a former Deseret News proofreader and election judge.

Until last month Mrs. Snarr was "talking, but it took her a long time to respond to questions. She was a very nice lady, well dressed, a very proper person - a very grand lady," said David S. Monson, a licensed practical nurse at St. Joseph's Villa. He said Mrs. Snarr recently slipped into a coma and died peacefully Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. at the nursing home, where her daughter, Laureta Snarr Ellsworth, and son-in-law, Lewis T. Ellsworth, are residents.

A funeral Mass will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the St. Joseph Villa chapel, 451 Bishop Federal Lane (1940 South). En-tomb-ment will be at Larkin Sunset Lawn Mausoleum.