Sonja June Kvia

June 26, 1930 – Feb. 13, 2026

Sonja June Kvia, 95, died peacefully on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, having been diagnosed with stomach cancer the preceding Monday.

Sonja was born on June 26, 1930, in Cleveland, Ohio, the first child of Norwegian parents, Ralph Kvia and Sigrid Torgersen. Because of the Great Depression, the family moved to Lovell in 1932, where her brother, Sigurd, was born. 

Sonja grew up in Lovell along with some of her mother’s sisters’ and one brother’s families, many cousins who had great times together. Sonja graduated from Lovell High School, where she had studied math, English, history and science but also enjoyed classes in homemaking, typing, business law, bookkeeping and art. She had wanted to study nursing but couldn’t afford it. She also had registered for a college course in interior decorating but was in an accident that prevented her from doing the course. 

She worked at the Big Horn Canning Company in Cowley, and then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, with friends in 1953, where she began working as a maid at a motel and then worked at a laundry. She moved to California with friends for a short time, where she picked loganberries and later packaged carrots and celery hearts. 

She returned home to Lovell, where she received a mission call to serve two years in Norway. After her mission, Sonja went to Salt Lake and started working for the Genealogical Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sonja worked there until she retired 35 years later. 

Both as part of her work and in many church callings over the years, Sonja offered years of service to people in many ways. She believed that her early years in the Lovell Ward in Wyoming, where original pioneers were still living, gave her a strong foundation in the Gospel. She thought that service was a blessing and that service and studying the scriptures had built her testimony. 

Some ways in which Sonja served were as a secretary in MIA, Sunday school, Relief Society and Primary, as a teacher in Sunday school and Relief Society and as a homemaking leader, an education leader and a counselor in Relief Society. In her early years, she sang in choirs such as an M-Men Gleaner chorus and participated in concerts and music festivals. 

From 1957 to 1980, she did hundreds of baptisms for the dead. In 1962, for instance, she was baptized for 194 people in four months. From 1975 to 1978, she was a special proxy for initiatory ordinances in the Salt Lake Temple. She also helped prepare conventions for the University of Utah Lamba Delta Sigma sorority, MIA and MIA music department conferences as well as welfare department projects. Later in life, she was a Boy Scout leader for many years. 

In addition to her full-time mission to Norway, Sonja served two stake missions and two part-time church service missions in the Family History Department. 

After her retirement, Sonja worked at the Capitol Hill Academy as an assistant teacher and librarian, where she organized and contributed books to the school library, which is named after her. 

From the time she was a young girl until she was well into her senior years, she loved to go camping – first with her family and later with her good friend, Moselle Budge. Sonja also traveled with other friends all over the United States visiting lighthouses. She kept several replicas of lighthouses in her home. She appreciated touring Israel and Egypt and wrote home about her memorable experiences in those countries. 

Sonja kept detailed records of her family history and sent copies to many family members. She was grateful for her association with her family throughout her life, especially her cousin Marge, who continued their friendship in their later years. She also appreciated the other family members who kept in touch in recent years. 

Sonja was good friends with Shauna Gee, who she trusted and with whom she traveled, taught, crafted and laughed. Sonja loved the Gee children and grandchildren. 

Sonja was preceded in death by her parents. 

She is survived by her brother, Sigurd. 

Funeral services will be held Saturday, Feb. 21,  at 11 a.m. at the LDS Meetinghouse at 2280 South 300 East in South Salt Lake, with a viewing prior to the funeral from 10 to 10:45 a.m.

Graveside service and interment will be Monday, Feb. 23, at 3 p.m. in the Lovell Cemetery.