Kenneth Rex Mortensen June 29, 1945 ~ March 11, 2023

Kenneth Rex Mortensen passed away peacefully with his wife, family and a dear friend by his side on Saturday, March 11, 2023. He bravely battled a very aggressive small cell cancer for the last few months of his life.
Kenny was born in Price, UT on June 29, 1945, as the oldest child to Rex and Georgia Mortensen. He was later joined by his two brothers, Jack and George.
Kenny spent his early youth in Price, and they later moved to Monticello, where he attended and graduated from high school in 1963. He joined the wrestling team and made lifelong friends in Monticello.
Kenny was taught the value of hard work at a young age and it served him well his whole life. He was very driven and always appreciated a job well done.
He met the ‘catch of his life’ Sheila Perkins, a Blanding girl, at the Deer Hunter’s ball in the fall of 1964. They were married in November of the following year.
They spent some of their early married life in Monticello and Moab and then bought a house and settled in Blanding for several years. Their oldest son Shayne, was born in 1967, later joined by Kristen in 1970, Cameron in 1972 and finally KenaDawn in 1977.
Growing up, we all remember our dad being a hard worker and teaching us to be the same.
Outside of work he always made time for hunting trips, outings up on the mountain for picnics, firewood and Christmas trees. Our favorite times were summer trips to Lake Powell.
Kenny was a businessman at heart. He bought a small café/game room that he remodeled and built onto what would become Kenny’s Café, a Blanding favorite for years to come.
He also bought a tractor, a couple cows and a horse and tried his hand at farming for a few years. He loved to drive around the fields at the end of the day to “watch the alfalfa grow”.
In 1986, Kenny and Sheila moved their family to Mesa, AZ for a few years, then off to the Great White North, Alaska in 1991. Their good friends, Don and Ann Dennis, offered Kenny a job with Tundra Tours Bus Company in Fairbanks and Sheila remembers Kenny having the truck packed before he told her he was going!
In 1998, they bought Riverside Camper Park in Houston, AK, located on the Little Su River, so he could fish whenever he wanted to. He did get to fish a little, as he did some guiding on the river, but with the RV Park and his other full-time job as Asset Manager at Mat-Su Health Services, he sure didn’t fish as much as he wished he could.
They spent 30 years in Alaska and raised all of their grandkids there as well, most of them right at their RV Park.
Grandpa helped teach the kids to fish and all of them to work hard. There isn’t one of them that doesn’t know how to pick rocks up out of the grass.
In the spring of 2021, at almost 75, Kenny finally decided it was time to retire. They sold the RV Park, and he retired from Mat-Su Health Services shortly after. In August of that year, they packed up and moved to Grand Junction, CO.
Kenny really enjoyed the time he had in Colorado, the warmer weather and the potential for more fishing! He spent a lot of time scouting out lakes and rivers where he could spend time with a fishing pole in his hand, sitting in his new boat.
Kenny is preceded in death by his parents, Rex and Georgia, brothers Jack and George, sister-in-law Terry, niece Tiffany, mother and father-in-law Carl and Bernice Perkins, and brother-in-law Chad.
He is survived by his wife Sheila, children Shayne (Tammee) of Blanding, UT, Kristen (Eddie) of Grand Junction, CO, Cameron (Kaymbra) of Bethel, AK and KenaDawn of Bethel, AK, 13 grandchildren, Meghan, Kyler (Taylor), Sierra, Jordan (Shawn), Drew, Sydnee (Justin), Devyn, Hunter, Gaven, Eli, Seth, Kaelor and Ella, five great grandchildren, Maverick, Marley, Khalil, Emmett and Lennox, as well as brothers and sisters in law, many nieces and nephews and some great friends.
There will be a memorial service on July 8 at the San Juan Mortuary in Blanding, UT.

Card of thanks
The family would like to thank Dr. King, Mita, and their team at Grand Valley Oncology and St Mary’s ICU and ER for their compassionate care. We would also like to thank Gary Blackburn and Snyder Memorials, as well as San Juan Mortuary.