Naomi Dickens

Naomi Cunningham Dickens passed peacefully from this life on September 29, 2026 at Mountain View Hospital in Payson, Utah, surrounded by all her children.

Naomi was born to Lewis Joseph and Nina Beth Ethel Goe Cunningham on June 7, 1948 in Twin Falls, Idaho. She spent her formative years on a dairy farm in Jerome, Idaho. She enjoyed many adventures with her 5 brothers and 1 sister as they navigated farm life together. When she was 15 years old, her parents sold their farm and moved to the Edgemont area of Provo. She graduated from Provo High School in 1966 and went on to complete a Secretarial Associates Degree at Brigham Young University. During that time, she worked at the BYU press building, operating a staple machine.

While employed at the press building, Naomi met Roy Dickens. At the time, he worked for the BYU receiving department, delivering various packages on campus. Some of those deliveries were made to the press building where he passed by the staple machine. He couldn't help but notice the beautiful blue grey eyes peeking over the top. After finding out who those pretty eyes belonged to, he asked her out on a date. They soon fell in love and were married on August 9, 1968 in the Salt Lake Temple. Over time, life got very busy as they grew their family to include eight children, all of them boys except seven.

Naomi had a quiet, resilient strength of character. She was a kind, patient, forgiving person who had a contagious laugh. On an extremely limited budget, she consistently sacrificed her wants to make sure her children were taken care of first. She practiced frugality by clipping coupons, meal planning, and sewing clothes for all her children. She took pride in creating home-cooked meals that were delicious and fit within their budget.

Alongside Roy (Daddy), they grew a vegetable garden to supplement fresh food into the family meals. Naomi (Mama) also canned many, many fruits and vegetables through the years. Together, they passed on the love of gardening, canning, and cooking to their children.

Some of the clothes Mama sewed for her children were underwear. She would let the girls pick out the satiny fabric and lace, then she would get to work making dozens of them. They would receive the underwear for Christmas. The children always knew which gifts they were because she stuffed them into empty toilet paper tubes and wrapped them to look like candy, tied with ribbon at both ends.

Naomi was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints with a firm belief in and relationship with Jesus Christ. She went about doing good in her neighborhood, serving her family and friends, and helping others feel a desire to grow closer to Jesus. She served in many different capacities within the church. Two of her most favorite callings were serving as the ward organist and primary pianist.

One charming thing about Mama that brought much laughter to her family over the years were her many tongue-twisting spoonerisms. She had an uncanny ability to take ordinary phrases and mix them up as they came out of her mouth. Some examples of the hilarity include: banadian canakian (Canadian bacon), wesh watcloth (wet washcloth), unfurnished finiture (unfinished furniture), ball bettoms (bell bottoms), and butterfingle jangles (butterfinger jingles). Then as a receptionist at Nu Skin someone called asking to speak to Blake Roney, but they mispronounced his last name as Rooney. When transferring the call to his secretary, she tried to be funny by saying just his name wrong, but messed it up further by saying, “I have a clake for Ball Rooney”. Her family could make her laugh anytime by repeating these back to her. Her joyful laughter will be sorely missed, complete with the eye rubbing and her tiny laughing “aftershocks”.

She enjoyed sharing her love of music and spent countless hours teaching her kids, grandkids, and neighborhood kids how to play the piano. Mama and Daddy also encouraged their children to sing together often. They learned how to harmonize and blend their voices beautifully with each other. On a family trip driving to Virginia and back, which took about six weeks, the family stayed in campgrounds and slept in a pop-up tent trailer each night. Daddy would go around to all the other campers in each campsite and invite them to come listen to the family sing. Mama brought a little keyboard along for the purpose of helping with starting notes. On this trip, the family performed their program for an aunt. She loved it so much that she nicknamed the group “The Dickettes”. Her children still love singing together. As Mama was preparing to leave this life, they sang around her bed one last time so she could listen to them harmonize once more.

Naomi loved being a Mama and Grandma. Her children and grandchildren never had to wonder if she cared about them. She faithfully sent birthday cards to every one of her posterity, always with a little money inside and her beautiful handwriting expressing her love. She lit up anytime someone came to visit her or she went to a family gathering. She was a delight to be around and her physical presence will be missed. Her passing has left a hole in all of our hearts.

Naomi is survived by her children, Michelle (Douglas) Neel, Shauna (Doug) Powell, Cynthia (Brett) Campbell, Teresa Brimhall, Renee’ (Jeremy) Slater, Lisa (Kimball) Langton, Cathy (Matt) Nelson, and Robert (Denise) Dickens; her siblings Richard (Cathy) Cunningham, Debbie Cunningham, David (Rene’) Cunningham, and Tom (Darla) Cunningham; and her 42 grandchildren and 4 (almost 5) great grandchildren, plus many friends who were so dear to her.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Roy Dickens, son-in-law Jaime Brimhall, granddaughter Lexi Dickens, sister Olivette (Jim) Hansen, and brothers Joe Cunningham and Jim Cunningham.

The family would like to express their deep appreciation to the nurses and staff at Mountain View Hospital and Bristol Hospice who cared for all of us, including our Mama, as we navigated her passing. They kept her comfortable and helped put us at ease through this difficult and heartbreaking process.

Her viewing and funeral services will be held on Saturday, October 10, 2026 at the Arrowhead 4th Ward building, 789 Arrowhead Trail, Payson, Utah. The viewing will be held from 9:30am - 11:45am with the funeral starting at 12:00pm. Livestreaming will be available. Interment will be held at the Payson City Cemetery, 400 North 800 East, Payson, Utah.