But Elton Reed Palmer didn't run much of a business. He gave away a lot more bicycles than he sold, and he seldom charged any child for a repair.

"Every child in the neighborhood knew if they had a flat tire on a bike or a scooter, they could go to Reed and he would fix it," said Catherine Solomon, a neighbor to Palmer and his wife, LoaFae Palmer.

No more children will be running to the Palmer house with their bicycles.

The Palmers, both 74, were found dead Tuesday in central Utah. Police believe they died from exposure.

The bodies were found on State Road 29 in Sanpete County, about seven miles west of the Emery County line. The couple's car was located about four miles west of the line, stuck in the snow.

Residents in West Valley City's Academy Park neighborhood, where the Palmers lived, choked up Wednesday as they remembered the couple.

From 1979 to 1982, Elton Reed Palmer, who went by his middle name, served the neighborhood in the Utah House of Representatives. He sat on improvement associations and was credited with helping to bring the neighborhood a park known today as Welcker Memorial Park.

The park used to be an empty lot full of grasshoppers; the weeds would catch fire every summer.

"Reed was Mr. Academy Park," said resident Joe Praag. "He did a lot for this neighborhood."

Solomon said Reed Palmer was always offering to help someone with a household project.

"Probably not a day goes by you wouldn't see him out in his truck riding around trying to help, trying to see what he could do for other people," Solomon said.

Speaking to The Tribune at the couple's home on Wednesday, Tammy Baldwin, one of their four daughters, said her father took up fixing bicycles after he retired.

He would introduce himself to new neighbors and ask if the children had bikes, Baldwin said. If kids didn't have bikes, he would give them one, often at Christmas, she said.

"He would fix them for a hug if they didn't have money."

LoaFae Palmer, who went by Fae, sewed and painted. Her canvas paintings of forest and mountain scenes adorned the Palmers' home on Wednesday. Other craft projects went to family members, said Shauna Lee Gardner, another Palmer daughter.

Reed Palmer had retired from working as a Realtor and for Deseret Bakery. Fae Palmer had earlier worked at a floral shop.

The couple were in Orangeville, Emery County, on Sunday for a farewell celebration for their granddaughter, who is leaving for an LDS mission to Tucson, Ariz. Gardner said the couple left Orangeville about 2 p.m. Sunday to return to West Valley City.

Fae Palmer didn't like traveling on U.S. Highway 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon, and the couple must have decided to take State Road 29, Gardner said.

The couple's Cadillac became stuck in the snow on a gravel section of the road that authorities say is impassable in winter. The Emery County Sheriff's Office said a passer-by reported the abandoned car Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday, Emery County sheriff's deputies on snowmobiles followed footprints going west from the vehicle. Fae Palmer's body was found about three miles from the car. Her husband's body was about 3 1/2 miles from the car.

The Cadillac had gasoline in its tank, which makes authorities believe the couple began walking shortly after the car became stuck in the snow. Emery County Sheriff Lamar Guymon said they not wearing warm clothing.

The couple were walking toward Ephraim, about 30 miles away, and there are no houses or lodges along the way, Guymon said.

The Palmers' deaths were similar to a case four years ago, when a pair of tourists became stuck in winter on a back road in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Rachel Crowley, 27, of Quincy, Mass., and George Metcalfe, 26, of London, rented a Jeep in Las Vegas and headed to southern Utah. On Feb. 25, 2003, they took a trip deep into the Grand-Staircase Escalante, becoming stuck on a snow- and mud-mired road.

Ranchers found Metcalfe, exhausted and suffering hypothermia, near Kodachrome Basin State Park, on March 3. Sheriff's deputies found Crowley's body later that day about 15 miles to the southeast, near Last Chance Canyon.

ncarlisle@sltrib.com