Viola Siler Conrad

CAPTION for photo: Vi Conrad whoops it up, riding on the back of a motorcycle on her 88th birthday.

VIOLA SILER CONRAD, 1935-2025

Viola Siler Conrad died May 23 after a bout of pneumonia in hospice at Presbyterian Kaseman Hospital in Albuquerque. She was 89.

Born Aug. 21, 1935 in Spanish Fork, Utah, to Mary Ann (Milner) and LeRoy Siler, Viola was the youngest of five children. She followed three older sisters: Maud, Jeanne, and Frankie, and her brother, Roy. All have preceded her in death, leaving Viola "the last man standing," as she always put it.

In Spanish Fork, Vi and her family lived near her beloved grandmother, Merintha Susanna, who adored her youngest granddaughter. She remembered playing under the quilt top as the ladies sewed and then sharing a “cheese glass” of beer — but only on state occasions. When Viola was 4, she fell into the Old Mill Pond, almost drowning. She survived, but never lost her fear of water and never learned to swim.

The family moved to Ogden, Utah in 1942 so her father and mother could work for the war effort. A house was part of the deal and the family enjoyed indoor plumbing for the first time. At school, Viola discovered and honed her talents as an actress and artist.

She won a poetry contest in the 4th grade for reciting "Giuseppe, da barber..." and was rewarded with “101 Famous Poems,” her treasured book of poetry. Thus began her love of rhyming couplets whether written by her own hand or others. Favorites were “If” by Rudyard Kipling and "Solitude" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Weber High School's drama department soon discovered Vi's talent for acting. Her drama teacher chose “Arsenic and Old Lace” for the Senior play, knowing that Viola would shine in the starring role — and she did.

After graduating from high school in 1953, the FBI recruited Viola to join the agency's secretarial pool in Washington, DC. Eager for adventure, she kissed Utah goodbye and boarded a train for the nation's capital to become Vi Si of the FBI -- all before her 18th birthday that August. Her time in DC coincided with Sen. Joe McCarthy's communist witch hunt known as the Army-McCarthy hearings. Eager to witness history in the making, Viola asked for time off to attend. Clyde Tolson, J. Edgar Hoover's right hand man, grudgingly gave permission but told her “to duck” if the TV cameras panned the gallery.

Remarkably, she came to the attention of Hoover himself -- twice! The head of the FBI scolded her for a traffic accident that occurred while she was driving without a license. "You need to be a law-abiding citizen," he admonished her in a letter. "You work for the FBI!" On another occasion, Hoover reprimanded her for calling in sick to nurse a severe sunburn. Even then, she and the sun were not friends.

Eager to see the rest of the country, Viola briefly transferred to San Francisco, but then relocated to Salt Lake City in 1957, to be closer to her family. Always up for a caper, she and four FBI secretaries piled into a VW bug one weekend, bound for Las Vegas to see Judy Garland.

It was in Salt Lake that she received accolades for her artistry from Mark Felt, of Watergate/Deep Throat fame. Felt wrote: “I have noted the excellence of the Christmas greetings ..., which you prepared and have been advised that you not only designed them, but you did them all by hand.”

It was also in Salt Lake that she met another important man: Walter Conrad, a geology student at the University of Utah. When they were introduced, a friend asked Viola about an injury to the tip of her middle finger on her left hand. Ever the drama queen, Viola went into great detail. Walter listened patiently and then held up his own left hand to show that he was missing three quarters of his ring finger and half his little finger. “I know just how you feel,” he said.

The couple married in March 1958 and Vi left the FBI as she was expecting her first child, Mary Katherine, who arrived in December. As Viola used to say, "The first baby can come at any time, the second one takes 9 months."

After Walter graduated in 1960, the young family moved all over the West -- California, Arizona, New Mexico -- while Walt mined copper, silver and eventually uranium. Meanwhile, the family grew. Susan Lee was born in June 1962 in Superior, AZ; and Karen Faye followed in November 1963 in Miami, AZ, the day after President Kennedy was assassinated.

While in labor, Vi declared, “If it’s a boy, his name will be John Fitzgerald.”Her doctor replied, “You can’t do that, you're a Republican! "She responded: “He was my President, too.”

In April 1965, their last daughter, Jeanne Louise, was born in Farmington, NM. Soon after, the Conrads settled in nearby Grants for almost a decade where Vi flourished as a wife, mother, actress, piano teacher, and seamstress all while working as a secretary at Mesa View Elementary School and ensuring that dinner was on the table every night at 5 o'clock when Walt walked through the door.

Viola was lucky to land in a town that supported community theater and she starred in The Village Players' productions of "Glass Menagerie," "The Fantasticks," and even won a Best Actress award for "Barefoot in the Park." She also hunted elk with Walter on Mt. Taylor, played bridge, and sewed beautiful dresses for her four daughters. Viola was a famous procrastinator often leaving her girls to wonder would she finish the outfit in time for the dance? The piano recital? The pom pom performance? Her daughters went to bed with the dresses half done and awoke the next morning with "professionally" finished gowns hanging in their bedroom doorways.

In 1975 Walter left Kerr McGee for Conoco and the family moved to Denver. Then 18 months later, they returned to New Mexico, leaving Mary behind to finish school at the University of Colorado. They bought a home on Big Sky in Albuquerque.

In early 1979, Vi and Walt divorced leaving Viola to navigate her new world as a single mother and divorcee'. While working as a real estate agent, she purchased a new house to raise her three teenage daughters. Vi made the Tasco residence into a beautiful home where her girls welcomed their friends. Vi often said she wanted to hang a sign above her front door stating, “Through these doors walked the most beautiful young women.”

Always industrious, Viola worked various jobs: real estate agent, cocktail waitress, car salesman, bartender, eventually working (and retiring) as the bookkeeper for The Bird of Paradise. She also moonlighted at House of Fabrics -- for the discount on material -- and as a dresser for the traveling theater productions at Popejoy Hall.

In spring 2010, Vi suffered a stroke that affected her left side and worsened the “damn leg.” But she was determined to get back on her feet -- and she did. Vi lived on her own for the next seven years, but it finally proved too much and she moved in with her daughter, Karen and her husband, John, in 2017.In the summer of 2021, Viola relocated to Paloma Landing Gracious Retirement Living, where she spent her last years, relishing every moment and thoroughly enjoying all the activities Paloma Landing offered. She wrote her history, many poems, including "Maintain" and "Irrelevant," and painted and painted and painted some more.

Well and truly loved by her fellow residents and care givers, Viola became the celebrity we all knew she was meant to be. As Viola looked over her life, she often said that her proudest accomplishment was raising her four daughters. "I walk taller because of you four," she told her girls many times.

Viola succumbed to pneumonia (the dreaded “brief illness”) on May 23rd, 2025, at the age of 89. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters and brother, and her son-in-law, John Laun. She will be greatly missed by her four daughters: Mary Katherine Conrad (and Rick Nobles), Susan Conrad (and Joey Musick), Karen Laun, and Jeanne Ronquillo (and Mark Ronquillo); her grandchildren: Peter Nobles, Claire Nobles (and Mike), Conrad Laun (and Emily), Eric Musick (and Hayley), Anne Laun, Max Ronquillo, Ashley Musick, and Katie Lovato (and Ryan); and her great-granddaughter Aurelia Laun.

A celebration of her life will be held on August 21, on what would have been her 90th birthday. In lieu of flowers, please paint a picture, sew an outfit, see a community play, or just enjoy your friends and raise a glass to Vi.