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Marie Ricks Merrill

Mar 30, 2023

Marie Ricks Merrill was born on June 9, 1931, in Rexburg, Idaho, to Ellis Kenneth Ricks and Juanita Martha Anderson Ricks. Marie was the 4th of six children with Gordon being oldest, followed by Norma, Barbara, Marie, Leon, and then Sharla.

Marie excelled in school and always wanted to be a teacher from the time she was a child. In 1949, she graduated from high school, and started at Ricks College. In 1951, with an associate’s degree, Marie took her first teaching job at Jefferson School in Hamilton, MT, teaching second grade. In 1955, Marie received her bachelor’s degree from BYU and got a job teaching second grade in Las Vegas. In 1968, Marie completed her master’s degree in counseling and guidance from BYU. She could not attend graduation because she was in San Francisco (Stanford University Hospital) donating a kidney to her sister, Barbara.

On August 8, 1956, Marie married Leo Merrill in the Idaho Falls Temple. Leo was stationed at Ft. Huachuca, AZ, in the U.S. Army, and Marie began teaching school on the base. Marie was an excellent teacher and often received letters from grateful parents, including from the wife of the colonel who was in charge of the base. When Leo was discharged from the army in 1958, Marie and Leo moved to Albany NY, where she taught fourth grade where they had their first two children. Marie and Leo later moved to Provo, Utah, where they had two more children.

Marie has always been an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1993, she was set apart as a special representative of the church and accompanied Leo to Ukraine for three years (1993-1996) when he was called as the first mission president of the Ukraine Donetsk Mission. After that mission, she and Leo spent two more years in Sweden, where Leo served as a counselor in the Stockholm Sweden Temple presidency and Marie served as an assistant temple matron. She and Leo were especially useful in the temple because they could speak Russian.

After returning from their missions, Marie served for eleven years as an ordinance worker at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple and four years as a switchboard operator at the Provo LDS Temple. She and Leo also served for seven years at the Family History Center in Orem as Family History consultants and served for a year as employment specialists at an Employment Center in Provo. Marie also served as a volunteer at the Scera Theater and Shell for 17 years.

She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Leo, three sons; Dave (Nanette), Douglas (Lisa), and Robert (Katreena), one daughter, Lorraine, and her sister Sharla (Max). Nineteen grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren also survive her. She will be remembered as being loving, giving, FUN, dependable, patient in suffering, and faithful. We will greatly miss her, but know that we will see her again in a better place.

Funeral Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, April 3, 2023 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Chapel on 445 South 700 East, Orem, Utah. A viewing for family and friends will be held from 9:30-10:30 a.m. prior to the services at the church. Burial will be in the Orem City Cemetery.

To express condolences to the family and view the entire obituary please visit SundbergOlpinMortuary.com