Cailey Ann Tullis, 18, unexpectedly passed away on Feb. 4, 2024, at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah. She was born in Salt Lake City on April 11, 2005, to Marla and Jared Tullis of Washington City.
Cailey lived in Southern Utah her entire life and had recently graduated with honors from Pine View High School. To know Cailey is to know love, joy, compassion, service, smiles and hugs. Many teachers throughout her school career found themselves receiving Cailey’s hugs even years after they taught her.
Cailey loved children. If there was a child or baby to be found, she was smiling at them, always receiving joy in return.
Even prior to graduation, Cailey had wanted to work for the Washington County School District preschools program and was thrilled to get the call she had been hired. With her class at Riverside, she donned a silly hat each day to make her preschoolers laugh and was often found on the playground playing hide and seek with them during recess.
Cailey had many talents and was such a natural at so much. She danced for many years with No Limit Dance Studio in Washington, competing in teams and solo competitions. Cailey started playing the viola in sixth grade. She continued to grow her skills with that, playing in the Pine View High orchestras as well as the Zion Youth Symphony Orchestra. In addition to playing beautiful music, Cailey loved to sing. Her voice was angelic.
She loved puzzles, no matter how hard. She recently helped her sister complete a very challenging one.
Cailey is survived by her parents Marla and Jared; brother Jayden and sisters Rylee, Lexi and Kynlee; grandparents Kathy Tullis, Howard Tullis, Sam Rogers and Sheila Miller. She is also survived by many aunts, uncles and cousins.
The family would like to thank all who were involved in trying to save our beautiful girl. The first responders: police officers, firefighters and paramedics who were all there for her in the wee hours of the morning.
We’d like to thank the staff of the St. George Regional Hospital Emergency Department and the nurses and doctors who took care of her during her brief stay. We’d like to thank the bishop who came over at 4 a.m. to give her a blessing. We’d like to thank the staff of AirLife Utah and the staff of their Cedar City base, who answered the urgent call to fly Cailey to Salt Lake City.
We’d like to thank the Neuro ICU staff at Intermountain Medical Center who worked tirelessly around the clock to try to get her better including the doctors, nurses, techs and others who both worked on Cailey to try to get her better and who mourned especially hard with us.
We’d like to thank the staff of DonorConnect who were able to grant Cailey’s final wishes of saving lives via organ donation. We’d like to thank all our family, our friends and acquaintances who called, donated time, money, meals and just love.
To the community of St. George who came out in full force in providing prayer and the numerous activities honoring Cailey: We are humbled, honored and grateful. We knew she was loved, but the outreach has shown us Cailey impacted way more than we ever could have known.
Celebration of life services will be Saturday, Feb. 10, at 11 a.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse at 2434 E Riverside Drive in St. George. A viewing will be held on Friday from 6-8 p.m. and also from 9:30-10:30 a.m. prior to services.
Interment will be at the Washington City Cemetery, under the direction of McMillan Mortuary 435-688-8880
To livestream services and to share condolences, click here to access the McMillan Mortuary website.