Marilyn Mecham Carter

“No matter your age, you will always need your mom”….author unknown.

Marilyn Mecham Carter passed away on January 9, 2020, at the age of 88.  She was born April 28, 1931, in Ogden, Utah, to Arlin Lorenzo Mecham and Ada Deborah Rogers.   She was married to the late Marvin Samuel Carter in the Salt Lake Temple.   She is the mother of 5 children (2 boys and 3 girls), grandmother of 13, and great-grandmother of 22. 

Mom grew up on a dairy farm in Milton, Utah, along with her 3 brothers and 1 sister.

She loved to roller skate at Como Springs, a recreational spot in Morgan.  She also loved to ice skate and would skate on the icy slough at the bottom of the garden, where the water drained from the spring, pretending she was Sonja Henie. 

She liked to roam the hills behind the farm.  In back of the hills there was supposedly a place like a little Grand Canyon called Mundy Town where no people lived and where you could easily get lost.   She had a secret desire to go find it, but she never did.

Mom loved to listen to «Inner Sanctum», which was a radio program with horror stories or spooky stories, with sound effects such as a squeaky door.  Also, the opera would play on the radio every Saturday and she’d listen while doing the dusting.  Her dad would say, “Is she listening to that stuff again!  I don’t know how she stands it.”

In the winter, Marilyn and her siblings loved to sled down what they called “The Old Slick” which was the biggest hill behind the barn, and from the barn down to the road.  What a great ride!

When mom was 17 she drove herself to a dance in Henefer, Utah.  There she met her future husband Marvin.  She said, “From the first time I met him, I knew I knew him from somewhere else.”

She attended LDS Business College when she was 18, worked at Kress’s, and lived in the Beehive House.  In the meantime, Marvin went to live in Mexico for BYU study abroad in Spanish. 

Mom and dad were married on August 13, 1951.  They bought their first and only home in the Millcreek area in Salt Lake County.  Mom worked at American Express until the birth of her first child.  She worked at several jobs including babysitting and ironing for people, selling hats and wigs in the ZCMI millinery department (she was really good at styling the wigs and liked that job), and as a Junior High School lunch lady. 

Mom was an excellent seamstress, loved to crochet, and was very artistic.  She encouraged us children to develop our talents and she and dad came to all of the music programs and other activities we were involved in.

Marilyn was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in many callings, but especially with the youth in the MIA (known today as the Young Men / Young Women.  One big event the MIA produced back then was the Gold and Green Ball which took place every year at the stake center.  They decorated magnificently for these dances. Mom started what was called the Stake Dance Group.  She knew a young adult man and a young adult woman, who both danced, and asked them to teach ballroom dancing to the youth of the stake.   It created excellent ballroom dancers (including two of her children), many friendships, and a few marriages as well. 

Mom and dad went on a two-year Leadership Support Mission in Salt Lake and served many years together as workers in the Salt Lake Temple.

Mom taught us to love the Savior by both her words and deeds.  She loved us, and she taught us well in every way.  We are blessed to call her Mother.  We will miss her more than words can say, but we know we will see her again.

We offer our sincere gratitude to the staff of the Wentworth at East Millcreek and Bristol Home Health and Hospice for their compassionate service. 

Friends and family are invited to visit Saturday, January 18, 2020 11:00am-12:00pm at Holbrook Mortuary, 3251 South 2300 East. Grave dedication will follow at the South Morgan City Cemetery, 335 South State Street, Morgan, Utah at 2:30pm.

Funeral Service Audio