Marian Virginia Gerstner Venema

Pinesdale - Marian Virginia Gerstner Venema, beloved Mother, Grandmother, Great-grandmother, Sister, Aunt, and Friend, passed away on Thursday, July 25, 2013 at age 84 in Hamilton, MT following a third stroke. Marian was born October 6, 1928 in Salt Lake City, Utah to John Howard and Plaseda Lucetta Cobia Gerstner. She graduated from West High School and then the University of Utah in 1949, earning a composite teaching degree in Home Economics. She later taught school in Provo, Utah. On May 21, 1951, she married Ronald Davis Venema, her childhood sweetheart, in the Salt Lake Temple. They settled in Salt Lake and were blessed with 11 children.

In 1968 Marian went back to school to renew her teaching certificate-her husband had become ill and required a kidney transplant or must go on an artificial kidney machine. Marian had to be trained to operate the dialysis machine. Once the tedious training was completed, she began the daunting and laborious task of running Ronald three days a week for up to 12 hours a day on the dialysis machine by herself in her home. Due to complications from his illness, Ronald passed away in December of 1970. Their life together was cut short after only 19 years, and Marian was left to care for their 11 children on her own.

Concerned about her children's welfare and feeling the tremendous weight of her responsibility, Marian became cognizant of the declining moral state in the public schools. It was at this time that she also became aware of the eroding freedoms in our country and the loss of our Constitutional rights. She became active in what would become a 42-year quest to help and inform others. She participated in many petition drives and was a charter member of "Women for Constitutional Government" in the state of Utah. She stood up for truth and right and spent her elderly years compiling packets of information warning friends, family, and strangers of the dire conditions of the times in which we are living.

Marian and her family moved to Pinesdale in 1974 where she taught cooking and later 4th grade at Pines Academy for over 12 years. She will be remembered as a strict, no- nonsense teacher who had high expectations of her students.

Marian's talents were vast. She was an excellent cook and seamstress, a passionate gardener (she could name every flower and felt happiest when she could work with the earth) and was a perfectionist in all she did. She loved beautiful music and insisted her children all learn to play musical instruments. She had a love for family history and spent endless hours researching and doing genealogical work for her ancestors. She loved all good books and spent many years running a mail-order bookstore. She was an avid bargain shopper. She was devoted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and served in her church in the Primary and Relief Society and other organizations for over 40 years. Because of this, she studied and was well-read in gospel principles and, at every opportunity, shared them with her posterity. She was indeed an inspiration and blessing to them all. Her family meant everything to her and she looked forward to the occasions when they would all get together. When people first met Marian, she often came across as gruff, but it wasn't long before she had made a friend. She was a very thoughtful, caring and self-less person.

Matriarch to 203 descendants (and counting), Marian is survived by a brother, Phillip Gerstner; 7 daughters: Gailan, Patience, Lorrie, Marian, Rosalie (twin), Lisa, and Francine and their spouses; 3 sons: Arlynn, Sterling, and Nathan and their spouses; 104 grandchildren; and 88 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ronald; a daughter, Rosalin (twin); three grandsons, Joshua, Eric, and Ronald Mitchell; her parents; four brothers; and three sisters.