Marilyn Ronnow Lindstrom

Dorothy Marilyn Ronnow Lindstrom, age 95, passed away on Dec. 4, 2024, after suffering a stroke. She was born on Thanksgiving Day in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 28, 1929, to Daniel and Dorothy Price Ronnow. Marilyn grew up in the small town of Panaca, Nevada splashing in the local swimming hole, riding horses, climbing Courthouse Rock, chasing boys in Cathedral Gorge, and fetching her mischievous, younger twin brothers home for dinner.

She graduated from East High School in Salt Lake City and later the Branch Agricultural College in Cedar City where she played the lead in the school’s production of I Remember Mama directed by Professor Twain Tippets. Later, she would serve as his assistant director, taking Shakespearian plays to rural Utah schools. While at home during a college break, she met Gaell Lindstrom, who was traveling with Tippetts, photographing Nevada ghost towns. The couple married in the LDS Salt Lake Temple on July 31, 1953.

As a young woman, Marilyn worked as a hostess at Zion Park Lodge, a ticket agent at United Airlines in Los Angeles, and a cashier at the Grand Canyon Lodge. Later in life, she taught 3rd through 5th grades in the Granite and Cache County School Districts retiring in 1991. One former student recalled, “She was tough, but I learned a lot.”

Gaell became a celebrated artist, widely known for his watercolor paintings. Marilyn’s life was her art. Devoted to helping those in need. A clever, wry sense of humor. Eager to share her love of poetry and novels. Elegant in manner and dress. And courageous in the face of multiple health setbacks. The many cards and letters of encouragement and best wishes she sent over the years rival in volume Virginia Woolf’s and all in her elegant handwriting, the envy of family and friends. If her life could be captured in a few lines it would be these from the poet John Frederick Nims: “With words and people and love you move at ease; / In traffic of wit expertly maneuver / And keep us, all devotion, at your knees.”

She is survived by her children Leslie Jensen (Kim), Lori Miller (Vern), Braden Lindstrom, and Chris Lindstrom (Marion), as well as twelve grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

A gathering of family and friends will be held Tuesday, December 10, 2024, 1:30pm, at Wasatch Lawn Mortuary, 3401 South Highland Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah. Interment will be at 3:00pm at the Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park and Cemetery, the same address.