WEST HAVEN DAYS 2025
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2025 Grand Marshals 
​Andrew and LuAnn Kellett

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Cowboy Grit and Quiet Grace: The Kelletts’ 60-Year Legacy

Andrew and LuAnn Kellett have called West Haven home for 55 years. They bought their farm in 1970 and raised six children there: Kim Buchanan, Lyndi Lowe, their late daughter Danielle Franks, Jana Talbot, Wesley Kellett, and Tracie Dalton. They are blessed with sixteen grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren and will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary this year.

Andrew was born in Moroni, Utah, in 1938, making him 87 years young this October. He was the youngest of two boys but lost his nine-year-old brother to rheumatic fever. Less than two years later, his father passed away from a sulfa drug allergy. His mother managed to make ends meet by renting out part of their home to boarders until she remarried. At nine, Andrew survived a terrible car accident that left him in a coma for nine days.

Taught to work hard from a young age, Andrew learned to shoe horses, weld, farm, and fix just about anything. At 10, he cleaned ditches for $1.00 per hour. He delivered newspapers on horseback, drove a combine on a 360-acre ranch, and took on jobs from plucking turkey feathers to handling coke (a coal byproduct) at a mining company. He also herded sheep in the hills of Sanpete County, avoiding “the most rattlesnakes I’ve ever seen.” To earn money for college, he delivered candy and tobacco to stores and worked as a hotel night clerk while attending school during the day.

Andrew graduated from Moroni High School in 1956, where he served as Student Body President. He attended Snow College, studying engineering for two years, before serving an LDS mission in Paris, France. After his mission, he attended Utah State University, earning both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Math Education and a minor in French. Andrew taught math at Wahlquist and T.H. Bell Junior High Schools for 34 years, supplementing his large family’s income by trading and shoeing horses after school. It’s estimated he shod over 100,000 horses.

LuAnn, born in Ogden, Utah, in 1945, will turn 80 on June 30, a remarkable milestone. The oldest of four children, she was raised by hardworking, frugal parents who instilled in her a strong sense of discipline and self-reliance. LuAnn cherished reading, losing herself in books beneath her family’s orchard trees, and loved art, interior design, and baton twirling. Growing up near Lorin Farr Park, she spent joyful summers swimming in its Olympic-size pool. An excellent student, LuAnn earned straight A’s throughout school. Her first job was babysitting for neighbors—she still remembers being handed $1.00 for an evening’s work.

She graduated from Ben Lomond High School in 1963 and studied medical technology at Weber State University. LuAnn began her career as a lab technician at Dee Memorial Hospital but later chose the role that brought her “my greatest joy”—being a stay-at-home mother to raise her six children. When her youngest turned five, she returned to the workforce part-time, spending 14 years as a lab assistant and phlebotomist for various laboratory companies. LuAnn, a devoted wife and mother, is also an exceptional cook. As an accomplished seamstress, she dedicated many hours to sewing her daughters’ rodeo queening outfits. A lifelong animal lover, she has compassionately trapped, spayed or neutered, and fed dozens of stray cats that found their way to her doorstep.

Andrew and LuAnn have served faithfully in many LDS Church callings over the years. LuAnn was a quiet and dependable presence in her ward, serving as librarian for an impressive 21 years. Andrew coached baseball and basketball, leading the Wahlquist Junior High Eagles to a basketball championship in 1965. He also served as a Taylor Jr. Posse leader for 21 years and was honored during the 2023 Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo for his contributions to preserving the cowboy way of life.

Andrew and LuAnn Kellett are proud to be part of the West Haven community, known for their kindness, service, and deep commitment to faith and family. Even at 86, Andrew can almost always be found outside lending a hand to neighbors, tending his farm and cattle, repairing or building something, or shoeing horses. Let’s face it, none of it would have been possible without LuAnn’s quiet, behind-the-scenes devotion and unwavering care for her husband and family. Together, they are a true testament to the power of love, work, and lasting legacy.

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