As Rep. Marda Dillree stood with her colleagues on Utah's Capitol Hill, she reached up, grasped the wig she wore to cover her head — rendered bald by chemotherapy — and held the wig aloft.
A Deseret News photographer captured the moment on Feb. 5, 1998, as the Republican from Farmington was inducted into the Bald Eagle Forum, a group that celebrates follically challenged legislators.
"She was such a fighter, just so sparkling," Lt. Gov. Greg Bell told the Deseret News on Saturday. "She took the attitude that it was just another thing and she was going to get through it. Very courageous."
On Thursday, Dillree lost her battle against a rare form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She was 64.
Bell learned of Dillree's death Saturday afternoon.
"I was so sad; I adored her so much," he said. "I owe her so much. She was a strong figure in my life."
Bell first worked with Dillree in 1990 when he was elected to the Farmington City Council. At the time she was already a veteran of public service, starting as a Boy Scout leader, a PTA president, a city councilwoman and a school board member. Dillree began her service in the Utah House in 1992, representing Davis County residents in District 17.
"When she took on a cause, it was a good one or she wouldn't have taken it on," said Dillree's husband of 46 years, Steve.
One of Dillree's causes was transportation, and she became a strong proponent of the West Davis Highway, later renamed the Legacy Parkway by former Gov. Mike Leavitt.
"She was indeed a visionary on transportation," Bell said. "She understood that we were going to shut down on I-15, and she knew that we needed another major route (through Davis County)."
Rep. Julie Fisher, R-Fruit Heights, was elected to succeed Dillree when she chose not to run for re-election in 2004. Fisher called her predecessor "a champion of transportation issues, not just for Davis County but for the state as a whole."
"When she first got elected she told someone she wanted to be on Transportation Committee," Fisher said, recalling a conversation she'd had with Dillree. "They said that'd be a boring job, but she was very instrumental in transportation issues throughout Utah."
Dillree also championed education issues, helping to create charter schools in Utah.
"She had a real strong marketing sense, and I mean that in the best way," Bell said. "She knew how to get a project going, how to bring an idea or a concept to the public or the Legislature."
Dillree was first diagnosed with cancer in 1997. She continued to serve, never missing a committee meeting despite undergoing a stem-cell transplant in November 1998. She told the Deseret News at the time that the procedure was her "best and only option in terms of curing it. We had to take it."
Steve Dillree said his wife sought public office because she loved her community, wanted to serve her neighbors and believed she could make a difference.
"I think she always pretty much had a true north," he said. "It became a little more difficult after her stem-cell transplant — I think it took a bit of her energy — but she continued to serve.
"That was her nature," Steve Dillree added. "She loved to serve, and, fortunately, she had the ability and the time to do that."
Funeral services for Dillree will be held Monday at 11 a.m. in the Farmington North Stake Center, 801 W. Shepard Lane, Farmington.
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