Marian Hand Jones Margetts Godfrey
1913 ~ 2007
Marian was born on March 22, 1913, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and passed away in Bountiful, Utah on November 29th, 2007. She was the sixth child of John Hand, a nationally famous opera singer, and Ilene Pratt Hand, a granddaughter of Orson Pratt. Following the death of her mother when Marian was just three, she and her siblings were raised primarily by their paternal grandmother in Sandy, Utah, where she grew into a beautiful and accomplished young woman, attended Jordan High School, had the lead in the school play, played in the school band and graduated in the class of 1931. Much to her suitors' collective frustration, her dating calendar was filled weeks in advance.
After high school, she married Milton Eugene ("Gene") Jones of Murray, Utah in the Salt Lake Temple and became the mother of three children, Patricia Marlene, Milton Eugene, Jr., and Ronald Taylor. She said, "I was determined to be the best wife and mother I could be, and to the best of my knowledge I was." As a young wife and mother, she and Gene moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a beautician to help him through school at Georgetown University. Following a wartime divorce, Marian returned to the support of family and church in Sandy, Utah, where she worked alone for a time to support her three children and helped to build her own modest home not far from the small frame house she grew up in.
She then married a friend from high school, Clairmont (Mont) Margetts. They had two children, Gwendolyn and Mont. In their later years, Marian & Mont served LDS missions to the London Temple and the Jordan River Temple. Fired with a personal testimony, she said, "I was determined to do all I could do." Apart from her temple missionary service, Marian's church service over the years included drama director, MIA president, ward and stake in-service leader, and spiritual living teacher.
Always seeking to do as much for herself and her family as she could, Marian sold silverware, Avon products, and opened her own beauty shop in the basement of her home. Without formal teaching qualifications, she was welcomed as a substitute teacher in the Jordan School District and in that capacity taught all grades for 14 years. In mid-life, with artistry in her blood, she began to paint and thereafter did so tirelessly. She and Mont traveled widely to art shows where she displayed and sold her paintings.
At 78, after Mont's death, Marian married another friend from high-school, Willard Godfrey. They enjoyed 16 blessed years of good health, mutual comfort and companionship, dividing their time between Arizona in the winter, and Utah in the summer. Square-dancing, playing the organ, and games of Rummi-Kub with their loyal friends of many years, the Garfields, were their delights into their great old age.
Marian had an indomitable will and was relentlessly positive in her outlook. She was determined to see the good in everything and everyone. Her glass was always half-full, never half-empty. Her courage and endurance were tested relentlessly, but she never stumbled or retreated from her faith, or ceased her efforts to do the right thing.
God bless you, Mother. We love you. For a brief moment you were old an frail, but now you are forever young. We thank a loving Heavenly Father that we were blessed with a mother like you.
Services will be held on Monday, December 3rd, at the Larkin Sunset Gardens Mortuary, 1950 East, 10600 South, Sandy, Utah. Viewing at 10:00 a.m., service at 11:00 a.m. Online condolences may be made at www.larkinmortuary.com