Londa Gay Upshaw

Londa Gay Upshaw was born June 26, 1958, in Rapid City, South Dakota, to Wayne S. Upshaw and Martha J. "Sue" Harris Upshaw. Her life took her across the country and around the world and eventually into the communities of Alaska, where she spent three decades serving with The Salvation Army. 

This is the story of Loni's life-not simply a record of where she lived and worked, but a history of the places she went, the people she served, the family she loved, and the many ways she made herself part of the lives of others. Loni's childhood was shaped by a family that moved and lived in a number of different places. Her early years included time in South Dakota, Bermuda, Nebraska, Maine, Texas, Germany, and Idaho. These experiences gave her a broad exposure to people, places, and cultures from a young age and helped form the adaptable and adventurous person she would become. 

Loni's 1st years in school started in Nebraska in a one room school house with her brother Shayne. Later in Loni's school years she played softball, joined Girl Scouts and also in High School was in Drill Team where she helped choreograph some of the routines they performed. Loni also coached softball in Idaho and Alaska. Loni played on several softball teams with her sister Liane and Brother-in-Law Ron. 

While in Girl Scouts in Germany Loni was able to travel to Holland and also to where the 1972 Munich Olympic Games were being held. 

Loni had a wide range of abilities and interests. She developed skills in business accounting, general office work, and loved flying small engine aircraft along side her Uncle Bob Tuning, obtaining her pilot's license in 1984. Like her mother Sue, she was an amazing seamstress with natural ability and perfectionism that resulted in flawless designs. 

Loni's calling to The Salvation Army was a pivotal part of her life and eventually grew into a lifelong vocation. Before becoming an officer, she worked in a variety of settings and developed practical skills that would later serve her throughout her career. She worked in financial institutions and also served as a housemother at The Salvation Army Booth Home in Boise, a home for pregnant teenagers and young mothers. There, she was in a caring and supportive role with young women and their children, an experience that became an important part of the story of how her life of service developed. Loni's willingness to learn, organize, travel, and take on unfamiliar challenges became useful throughout her years of ministry. 

Loni entered the Salvation Army officers' training School in 1990 from her home Corps in Boise, Id, Cascade Division. She completed her training in Rancho Palos Verdes and earned an A.A. in Ministries in 1992. On June 14, 1992, she was commissioned as a Lieutenant in The Salvation Army as a member of the "Followers of Jesus" session. That day began a thirty-year ministry career in which her work and her life became closely intertwined with the people and communities she served. 

Alaska would become the defining setting of Loni's professional life. Her career was not a single posting in one place, but a succession of appointments that took her into diverse communities, different kinds of ministry, and varying stages of responsibility. 

Loni's first recorded Alaska appointment began in June 1992, when she served as an Assistant Corps Officer in the Gateway area of Southeast Alaska. These early years were the beginning of the Alaska chapter that would ultimately define much of her adult life. She was learning the communities, the rhythms of life in Southeast Alaska, and the practical realities of serving people in places that were very different from those she had known before. 

In June 1993, Loni moved to Haines, Alaska, to serve as a Corps Officer. While in Haines Loni remodeled the Corps and Quarters with the help of the community. While also here Loni was adopted into the Eagle Clan with highest honors. 

In January 1997, Loni moved to serve in Klawock where she was promoted to Captain in June 1997. Here in Klawock Loni expanded the Corps/Quarters by remodeling the entire building. 

In August 2000, Loni began serving as Corps Officer in Hoonah, Alaska, where she remained until June 30, 2011. By this stage of her career, she brought years of experience in Alaska with her. She had already learned how to enter a new community, understand its needs, build trust, and make the work of The Salvation Army part of the community life. 

While in Hoonah Loni was tasked with building a New Corps with Quarters. Loni served as the General Contractor working with the State and Local Authorities. Loni was able to get much of the building supplies and labor donated to offset the overall costs of the new construction (Loni could talk anybody into anything). 

Also while in Hoonah, Loni helped support her Corps by taking on side jobs. Loni would Substitute Teach and cook in the local school. She worked in a local restaurant where she was known for creating specialty pizzas using the local cuisine and eventually opened a business with her friends and corps members Keith and Edna Skaflestad. Loni would also cook many meals for the community as fundraisers. Loni especially liked cooking for the wrestling teams that would come to town for tournaments. 

In June 2011, Loni returned to the Gateway area, this time as Corps Officer. Coming back to an area she had served earlier in her career meant reconnecting with familiar people while also seeing how the community had changed. Her return was another example of the continuity of her life in Alaska: places and relationships that had been part of her earlier years could become part of the story again later on. 

In July 2015, Loni moved to Bethel, Alaska, where she served as an Outpost Officer. This brought her into a different part of the state and a different community context from the Southeast Alaska towns where she had spent much of her career. Once again, her work required her to adapt, build relationships, and find practical ways to serve the people around her. While in Bethel, Loni opened a Food Pantry and ''Winter House" where the homeless could come for warmth to sleep at night and they never left without a warm home cooked meal. 

In June 2017, Loni began her final Salvation Army appointment as Corps Officer in Petersburg, Alaska. The Petersburg portion of her story can be expanded with the people she served, the final experiences of her ministry, and what it meant to reach the end of a thirty-year career. After retiring Loni continued to support the Petersburg Senior Living Facility by sending Christmas gifts each year. 

On June 14, 2022, Loni reached thirty years of commissioned service with The Salvation Army. Her career record also records her thirty-year long-service recognition in 2022. Thirty years represented a substantial portion of her adult life and reflected the continuity of a vocation that had taken her from her commissioning in 1992 through communities throughout Alaska. 

After thirty years of commissioned service, Loni retired from The Salvation Army on July 1, 2022. Loni's years in Alaska were more than a professional assignment. Alaska became home in a deeply personal sense. She knew communities across the state, built friendships over decades, and carried stories and memories from one appointment to the next. 

Loni not only loved her service as a Salvation Anny Officer but she loved her family and the time she was able to spend with them, either in Alaska or back home in Idaho and traveling to Missouri. 

Loni was very close to her nieces and nephews, often taking them on trips or just spending time with them while they were together. 

Often family would visit Loni in Alaska where she would show them around or arrange for them to take fishing trips. 

When Loni was in the lower 48, Loni would either stay in Idaho with one of her nieces or take road trips often leading to Missouri. 

Family remained central to Loni throughout her life, and she loved her nieces and nephews and the younger generations who followed them. She was not an aunt who simply remembered birthdays; she created experiences and memories. No matter where she lived, Loni took the time to know about the lives of her nieces and nephews and she made sure to set aside time to spend with them when she was back in Idaho. 

After retiring and returning to Boise, Loni moved in with her niece D'Andra and her husband Robert and their two children, EmaLee and Nickolas. Loni and EmaLee had a particularly close and special relationship. 

As Loni's own health declined, the arrangement changed. What had begun with Loni moving in to help care for EmaLee became a period in which the entire family worked to help one another. Having Loni in the home involved adjustments, and practical challenges, but it was also meaningful and deeply rooted in family love. Everyone was adapting to changing needs, and everyone was contributing what they could. 

Loni's final years brought her into an especially close period of family life. As her health declined, the people around her increasingly worked together to support her, just as she had spent so many years supporting others. 

Loni was preceded in death by her parents, Wayne S. Upshaw and Martha J. "Sue" Harris Upshaw, and her brother, Shayne Upshaw. 

She is survived by her sisters, Darcy (Ron) Cecil and Liane Hihath, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews. 

Loni's life cannot be reduced to the titles she held or the places where she was assigned. She spent thirty years as a commissioned officer of The Salvation Army, all of that time serving in Alaska. She moved from community to community, opened and served outposts, led corps, helped people through difficult circumstances, and built relationships that became part of her life. Her legacy also lives in her family-in her sisters, in the nieces and nephews she loved, in the great-nieces and great-nephews she delighted with gifts and adventures, and in the family who cared for her as her own health declined. The same woman who spent decades helping communities in Alaska also spent her personal life showing up for the people she loved. 

Isaiah 26:4

"Trust in the Lord forever, For in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength."

In lieu of flowers, contributions can made for a Memorial Bench . 

Please send contributions to: 

Darcy Cecil 

1724 S. Helen St. 
Boise, ID 83705