Marilyn Phillips has been a role model for me ever since she was Camille's kindergarten teacher nearly 50 years ago. Marilyn encouraged me to bring our North Hills Daughters of Utah Pioneers "camp" back to life as the oldsters who had kept it alive for 50 years died. On April 18, 2026, Marilyn told about her life at the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Jubilee.
From the very beginning, Marilyn's life has been dramatic. She was sitting on her front porch near Honolulu, as a little girl, as she noticed planes flying low with rising suns painted on their wings. They were flying across the island to Pearl Harbor. Years later, as a principal at an elementary school on Salt Lake's West Side, Marilyn helped the FBI with a sting operation to capture gang members lurking in the neighborhood of her school. Now, in her late 80s, Marilyn recuperates again and again, from debilitating illnesses, to live vibrantly. When I asked her advice for living well as a widow, she said, "Spend lots of time with young people." She also counseled me, as I worried about how long my 79-year-old husband would survive, "Enjoy him now."
I enjoy not only the Utah and Mormon history I learn at DUP meetings, but the interesting women I meet. This woman was a friend of mine years ago, when she worked in the Zions Bank Women's Financial Center and I was a member of its advisory board. It was good to connect again, as she told about her ancestors at the Jubilee.
Pam Johnson and Nancy Monson represented our "camp" at the Jubilee. They are both strong, capable women whom I admire.
Fittingly, the Jubilee was held at the LDS church on 8th East and 4th South which was one of the original pioneer wards, and which was built in its present form in the 1880s.
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