Judith Cannon Marriott died peacefully on August 25, 2014, at her home in Holladay, Utah.
Judith was born on September 20, 1916, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was the first daughter of Tracy Young Cannon and Lettie Taylor. "When Judith was born," her mother wrote, "our joy was complete. She was such a lovely baby." Judith had three older brothers‚‚Taylor, Melvin, and Ralph, two younger sisters‚‚Frances and Rose Ann, and a younger brother, Emerson.
"Our family lived in a two-story home at 1176 South Eighth West during my entire childhood and youth," Judith recorded. "Our home was a happy, comfortable home. We never had a lot of material things, but we had all the necessities, a few niceties, and many good friends nearby. We loved each other and there was a lot of laughter in our home. After my birth, Frances, Rose Ann, and finally my younger brother, Emerson, were born. Because I had three older brothers, I was sort of a tomboy during my childhood, and liked to tag along with my brothers and do everything they did."
"We knew Mother and Father loved each other. They were always very kind to each other. As children, we had tasks to do at home," Judith remembered. "Mother was the disciplinarian and saw that we carried them out. Father loved music and was a professional musician and composer. We all took piano lessons. We all practiced an hour a day. Some of us went on to other instruments, and we had enough people to keep every room in the house busy with someone practicing an instrument. We also sang a lot. Frances, Rose Ann and I used to harmonize. I studied the piano with Aunt Viola Taylor and with Dad for a while. Dad's music was a great inspiration to me. I received some of my best training from him. When I was 11 years old, I received the assignment to play the piano in the Cannon Ward Primary. That was my first of many church assignments in music."
Judith graduated from South High School in June 1933, studied piano at the McCune School of Music and Art for a year and then at the University of Utah, where she was the Snow Queen, a member of Delta Gamma sorority, and secretary and then vice president of the student body.
Judith's mother died on May 4, 1935, when Judith was completing her sophomore year. "It was a devastation when Mother was finally taken from our home," she recounted.
During Judith's senior year, she met Woodrow (Woody) Duane Marriott. They were sealed on July 26, 1938, in the Salt Lake Temple. The next day, they packed all their belongings into Woody's secondhand 1936 Chevrolet and drove across the country to Washington, D.C. where their four children‚‚Nancy Jean, David Cannon, Susan, and Judith Ann‚‚were born and where Woody and Judith lived for 67 years. During Judith's years in Washington, D.C., she was an active and faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving in many callings, including in the primary, relief society, and music director. After the Washington, D.C. Temple was completed in 1974, she served for many years as an ordinance worker. After Woody's death in July 2005, Judith moved to Salt Lake City to be close to her family.
Judith will be remembered by her children and posterity for her sense of humor, her kind and gentle spirit, and, perhaps most of all, for her testimony of the divinity of the Savior, Jesus Christ, her witness of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and the truthfulness of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Judith is preceded in death by her husband, Woodrow; her daughter, Susan Marriott Ickes (Rodney Dennis); her granddaughter, Georgia Marriott; and two brothers, Taylor Cannon and Melvin Cannon. She is survived by three children, Nancy Jean Marriott Sonkens (Jerry Wayne), David Cannon Marriott (Neill Foote), and Judith Ann Marriott Ballstaedt (Mark Taylor); by 34 grandchildren and 106 great-grandchildren, and by two brothers, Ralph Cannon and Emerson Cannon, two sisters, Frances Cannon Lee Hart and Rose Ann Gerstner.
Judith's children want to express their gratitude to the many caregivers for their kindness and dedication in assisting Judith in her declining years and final days.
Funeral services will be held at 11 AM on Friday, August 29, 2014 at the Holladay LDS Stake Center (4568 S Holladay Blvd). Viewings will be held at the Holladay LDS Stake Center on Thursday, August 28, 2014 from 6-8 PM and 9:30-10:30 AM on Friday. Interment, Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park. Condolences may be sent to the family at larkinmortuary.com.
