Marilyn Thomas

Marilyn Rae Card Thomas, 74, died on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 in Logan, Utah. She was born in Cardston, Alberta, Canada on November 27, 1939 to Reed and Fern Holman Card. She grew up in Cardston with her sister, brothers, and cousins. She was close to her grandparents and loved going to Magrath to visit them. Marilyn loved school, learning and books and was an exceptional student. This enthusiasm took her to the University of Alberta where she earned a teaching certificate. She later completed a bachelor's degree from Utah State.
Marilyn met James Hadland Thomas in 1959 and married him on September 22, knowing their lives would be an adventure. This proved to be true as Jim's career in agriculture and international development at Utah State University took them all over the world. Taking their children with them, they lived in Bolivia, Iran, Bolivia again, Egypt, and India. After their children were grown, they continued their adventures and lived in Palestine and they served an LDS mission together in Puerto Rico and Curacao. Jim and Marilyn loved to travel and continued doing this throughout their lives. Marilyn was enchanted by Africa from a young age and their final trip was to South Africa to enjoy the wild animals that she loved. Their world perspective provided them with many opportunities to help others and they served an additional humanitarian mission for the LDS church, providing expert advice around agricultural projects throughout the world. She visited 92 countries in her lifetime.
Marilyn read avidly, and took classes both at USU and through the LDS Institute whenever she could. She loved libraries and worked in them in Cardston, Taber, Cairo, New Delhi, Jenin, and North Logan and devoted many hours of service to their development. She served others in many capacities; in women's clubs as she lived overseas, at USU, in Cache Valley, and throughout her experience in the church.
She was preceded in death by a granddaughter, Robyn. She is survived by her husband, James, her children, Douglas (Carol), Shauna Crane (Bruce) , Michael (Fran), Wendy Vernon (Matt), and David (Ainsley), as well as her grandchildren.
Funeral services will be at 11:00 AM on Saturday, March 8, 2014 at the North Logan 2nd Ward Chapel, 1105 East 2100 North in North Logan. A viewing will be held on Friday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Allen-Hall Mortuary, 34 East Center Street in Logan, and prior to the services on Saturday at the church from 9:30 to 10:30 AM. Interment will be in the Logan City Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.allenmortuaries.net