Marianne Kofoed Walker left a legacy of Christ-like love and service when she passed away on January 2, 2021, at age 76. She peacefully slipped into eternal glory after a lengthy battle with a rare form of blood cancer. Marianne was born on April 6, 1944, to Glenn and Verla Kofoed, who lived in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, at the time. As a child, they moved to New Plymouth, Idaho, where she grew up with her eight siblings, whom she loved, and stayed connected with as she organized family gatherings and Sunday meals.
While attending New Plymouth High School, she served in student council leadership and graduated as Salutatorian in 1962. Crowned in that same year as Miss Payette County, she ventured off to Provo, Utah, to attend Brigham Young University. While touring with the Oratorio Choir, she fell in love with fellow choir member Lary Clayton Walker. On July 23, 1963, they were married in the Idaho Falls Temple and remained sweethearts through 57 years of marriage.
Her resourceful homemaking skills and careful financial accounting supported Lary through law school and kept the home and Walker Law Office running through the ups and downs of life. With homemade clothes – jackets, prom dresses, and wedding dresses – she sewed love into the lives and events of her eleven children: Lori, Lara, LaReesa, Delton, Dallan, DeLon, Devin, Daniel, Derrel, Kira, Kirsten. The aroma of homemade foods: fresh bread, chocolate fudge, and peach milkshakes defined her home as a comfortable place to live and visit. Her posterity considers the way she cared for her biological children and their spouses, (whom she loved as her own) several non-biological children, 66 grandchildren, and 19 great-grandchildren to be a mothering miracle. She was a dedicated fan at her children’s activities and sporting events. In an extraordinarily Christ-like manner, she filled others with individualized love, even in the last cancer-ridden decades of her life.
Surrendering her time, talents, and energy to the wants and needs of those around her, she embodied selfless service at home and in Weiser, Idaho, where they lived most of their married life. Those who knew her best observed her passion and pastime was to reach out and strengthen the weak and befriend the friendless, with compassion in her heart and a smile on her face. Though not in optimal health, she happily volunteered later in life to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, first in Russia then in Wichita, Kansas, and enjoyed a miraculous suspension of her cancer while sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the last few days of her life, while reminiscing with a friend with whom she served, she said, “We had too much fun for it to be considered church service.” She will be sorely missed and never forgotten!
