Rockville, Utah - Wilma Angius passed away peacefully on May 31, 2013 at the age of 94. Wilma was a leader in the organic gardening movement in Southern Utah, and was one of the founders of the Farmers' Market in Springdale, Utah. From her extensive garden in Rockville, Utah, she supplied a wide array of organic fruits and vegetables to local restaurants and markets. Visitors who dined at fine restaurants in the Zion Canyon area and in St. George have enjoyed the fruits of her labor. For decades she was a source of wisdom and inspiration for organic gardeners throughout the region.

Wilma was born into a farming family in Glasgow, Missouri in 1918, the daughter of August and Lena Reich. She was the valedictorian of her high school class, and intended to pursue a career in agriculture. However, the limited opportunities for women in that field at the time turned her to nursing instead. She attended St. Louis University, then one of the few collegiate nursing programs in the country, graduating in 1942 with a degree in Nursing Education. She was an instructor of clinical nursing, and a practicing nurse, at various private and university hospitals in Colorado, Missouri, and Arizona.

In 1952, she married William Angius and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she raised a son and two daughters. Following the death of her husband, Wilma pursued a lifelong desire to work in the Native American community and returned to nursing on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. After retiring from nursing in 1983, she relocated to Zion Canyon and began a long and energetic career as an organic gardener. Two days before her death, Wilma announced that she was retiring from gardening"this year, she said, she would only put in 150 tomato plants.

Wilma is survived by her son, Christopher Angius, of Portland, Oregon; daughters: Katherine Starling, of Rockville, Utah and Heidi McCormack, of Seattle, Washington; and four grandchildren.

A memorial celebration of Wilma's life will be held on Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. at the Rockville Community Center, 43 East Main, Rockville, Utah. Donations in Wilma's memory may be made to the National Library Service for the Blind (www.loc.gov/nls/donate).