Marsha Gae Milne Smith

**September 21, 1950 – September 17, 2026**

Marsha Gae Milne Smith loved deeply, gave generously, stayed busy, and rarely met a quilt store she didn't want to visit. She passed away peacefully on September 17, 2026, just four days shy of her 76th birthday.

Marsha was born on September 21, 1950, in St. George, Utah, to Willard and Ruth Milne. St. George would remain the place she called home for most of her life. She attended Dixie High School and continued her education at Dixie College and Utah State University, where she met the love of her life, Bruce Smith.

After a whirlwind romance, they were married December 18, 1971 in the St. George LDS Temple. More than 54 years later, they remained husband and wife—a partnership built on love, faith, family, and a lifetime of shared memories.

They were the perfect balance—each bringing something different to their marriage, while together creating a partnership that simply worked. They were two of the most loving parents their children could have asked for. Bruce would do just about anything to make Marsha happy, including the occasional visit to a quilt store while on vacation. He always went along with her ideas, because seeing her happy was worth it. We suspect he is only now beginning to realize just how much happiness those shopping trips actually brought her.

Her time at Utah State University would lay the foundation for the teaching career that would become such an important part of her life. Marsha had an extraordinary gift for teaching young children. As a school teacher, she worked tirelessly at becoming the absolute best and most capable teacher she could be. She was fiercely determined to make learning fun, meaningful, and memorable, while giving her students something even more important than knowledge: a deep love and understanding of learning itself. She poured her creativity, energy, patience, and heart into her classroom and into the children she taught. Teaching was never simply a job to Marsha. It was a calling.

Her gift for teaching followed her far beyond the classroom. She taught everyone around her about generosity, creativity, service, faith, and the importance of making people feel cared for.

Marsha was the kind of person who was always doing something for someone else. She gave her time, her talents, her food, her handmade creations, and, most importantly, her heart. If there was a way to help, she found it. If someone needed something, she was likely already figuring out how to provide it. And if she showed up at your door carrying homemade bread, you knew you were loved.

Marsha was an extraordinarily talented quilter. For her, quilting wasn't simply a hobby—it was an art form, a love language, and usually an excellent excuse to visit yet another quilt store. She could never quite pass one up. In fact, collecting fabric became a hobby all its own. There was always room for one more piece of fabric, because surely this was the one she needed. Her quilts were beautiful, but the love stitched into them was even more beautiful. Many people will forever have something made by Marsha to wrap around themselves and remember her.

Marsha also loved to shop. She enjoyed the hunt, the discovery, and, perhaps most of all, finding something she could give to someone else. Giving gifts was one of the ways she expressed love. She took great pleasure in finding just the right thing for the people she loved.

And then there was Christmas. Christmas with Marsha was an event unto itself. What started as a reasonable collection of gifts could quickly become a small-scale Christmas avalanche. She loved watching people open presents almost as much as she loved giving them. Her generosity made Christmas with her family wonderfully, ridiculously, unmistakably Marsha.

She also had a gift for baking homemade bread and sharing it with friends, neighbors, and anyone fortunate enough to cross her path. She loved decorating for the holidays and had a wonderful ability to turn ordinary days into something special. She loved surprises—especially a good one—and there was a certain joy in seeing her delight when something unexpected happened.

One of Marsha's favorite places to be was the family cabin in Pine Valley. It was a place where she could relax, enjoy her family, and, most importantly, tend to her very important responsibility: feeding the hummingbirds. She took that job very seriously and made sure we all learned how to help.

Marsha also loved her friends dearly. She was blessed with many wonderful friendships throughout her life, and she treasured every opportunity to get together, visit, laugh, and make memories. Whether it was over lunch, ice cream, a shared hobby, a good conversation, or simply time spent together, her friendships brought her tremendous joy. She had a way of making people feel welcome, remembered, and loved—and she was grateful for every person who shared a piece of her life.

Marsha had a wonderful ability to find joy in the little things. Like fuzzy socks, gnomes, and chocolate.

Marsha loved chocolate with an enthusiasm that deserves to be mentioned in any honest account of her life. Especially dark chocolate. Peanut butter, on the other hand, was firmly and unequivocally rejected. Some things in life are simply non-negotiable.

But perhaps nothing brought Marsha more joy than her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She absolutely adored them. She loved spoiling them, and finding little ways to make them feel special. She had a particular soft spot for her great-grandchildren and loved sending them books. It was one of her favorite ways to share her love from near or far.

Above all, Marsha loved people. She loved her family fiercely and found joy in being a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and great-grandmother.

Her faith in Jesus Christ was a deeply important part of her life. Marsha was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and devoted many years to serving others. She served three missions: in Palmyra, New York; Nauvoo, Illinois; and as a Church Service Missionary in St. George. Most recently, she had been serving as an Assistant Shift Coordinator at the St. George Red Cliffs Temple.

Service wasn't simply something Marsha did. It was who she was.

She is survived by her husband, Bruce Smith of St. George, Utah; her daughter, Melynda (Shane) Reed of Mona, Utah; her son, Matt (Nick) Smith of Eagle Mountain, Utah; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her siblings: Garth (Kay) Milne of Henderson, Nevada; Nancy (Mike) Easton of Sandy, Utah; Sue (Ken) Schmutz of Henderson, Nevada; and Judy (Dave) Corry of St. George, Utah.

She leaves behind far more than memories. She leaves quilts that will be wrapped around loved ones, recipes that will be made again, books that will be read by little hands, traditions that will continue, holiday decorations that will bring smiles, friendships that will endure, stories that will be told again and again, and countless people who are better because she passed through their lives.

There will be an empty chair, an empty place at the table, and perhaps a few more quilts than anyone really knows what to do with. There will be hummingbirds at the cabin who may wonder where their most devoted caretaker has gone. There will be grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will miss being spoiled. There will be friends who will miss her at the next get-together. There will also be an unmistakable absence of homemade bread.

But most of all, there will be love.

The kind of love Marsha spent 75 years giving away so freely.

Her family will miss her more than words can say. They will miss her laughter, her generosity, her creativity, her surprises, her holiday spirit, her bread, her quilts, her shopping adventures, her gift-giving, her chocolate-loving ways, her fierce dislike of peanut butter, her hummingbirds, her stories, and all the little things that made her Mom, Grandma, Great-Grandma, Marsha, and our person.

They will carry her with them—not simply in memories, but in the people they become because she loved them. They will carry forward the lessons she taught without ever sitting down to teach them: that love is something you do, that generosity is never wasted, and that a life is made beautiful by the people you make feel loved. They will tell her stories, laugh at the things only the family understands, and find themselves saying something or doing something and suddenly realize, “That was Mom”. In those moments, she won't feel quite so far away.

Marsha's earthly work is finished.

But the love she spent a lifetime giving away is not.

And that may be the most beautiful thing she ever made.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, Sept. 26, at 11 a.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 628 S. 3000 E. St. George, Utah. A family only visitation will take place immediately before the funeral, at 10:30 a.m. Interment will follow at St. George City Cemetery