SALT LAKE CITY — Utah leaders, faith leaders, family members and friends gathered Friday at First Presbyterian Church to say goodbye to Pamela Atkinson, the longtime advocate for people experiencing homelessness whose name is attached to resource centers, housing and a statewide trust fund.
Atkinson died Oct. 10 at 93.
The memorial service took place at the church where Atkinson had long served as an elder, usher and greeter. Rev. Jamie White opened by describing one of Atkinson’s final mornings, when White began reciting Psalm 23 at her bedside.
“Her eyes fluttered open,” White said. “And she began to whisper the words right along with me. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.”
White also read words Atkinson had written near the end of her life, describing the simple acts of service she hoped others would continue.
“It’s just so easy to give,” Atkinson wrote. “It doesn’t have to be a big thing. It could be socks, a can of soup, a bag of cat food.”
Atkinson was widely known for working with Utah governors and lawmakers while also building close, longtime relationships with people experiencing homelessness. Her work helped shape health care, housing and services for low-income Utahns, refugees and people without housing.
Gov. Spencer Cox called her influence on the state extraordinary.
“When the final history of the state of Utah is written, I believe that the unlikeliest chapter will be about a poor Presbyterian girl from the U.K. who profoundly altered the history of a state 5,000 miles away,” Cox said.
Her grandson, Nate Cooper, remembered Atkinson as a British grandmother who kept Cadbury chocolate at home and bought an Xbox to keep her grandsons visiting. He also recalled asking, as a teenager, why she kept devoting so much time and energy to serving others.
“She said, ‘I am doing the work that I am doing because if Jesus Christ were here on the earth, this is what he would be doing. It’s because of Jesus Christ,’” he said.
Friend Sharon Eubank said Atkinson helped shape the program for her own memorial and did not want the service to focus only on praise.
“She said, ‘I don’t want you to talk about me. I want you to talk about how people can do the work,’” Eubank said.
Atkinson’s daughter, Heather Hooper, said that spirit remained with her mother even in her final days.
“Being Pamela’s daughter meant her asking if there was anything she could do for me just a few days before she died,” Hooper said. “Because that’s the kind of person she was.”
Elder Patrick Kearon of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called Atkinson “a precious friend” who made people around her want to be better.
The service ended with prayer, “Amazing Grace” and White’s final charge to the congregation: “Death does not have the final word. Life and love do. And it lives on in you. Do justice, love mercy. Walk humbly with your God.”
Attendees were invited to bring new, warm socks for Pamela’s Closet, the ministry Atkinson helped build at First Presbyterian Church.