Jim Marshall peacefully left his earthly abode early Wednesday morning September 17th at the Homestead Nursing center in Rexburg Idaho after a long battle with Alzheimer's.

James Glen Marshall (Jim) was born in St. Anthony, Idaho on April18,1942 to Donald Roy Marshall (1916-2000) and Wanda (Orgill) Marshall (1919-2000).

When Jim was born, his mother Wanda had complications and hemorrhaged severely and almost passed on. Wanda had an uncommon blood type and it was difficult to find somebody who was a match for a transfusion but Russ Egbert had the same blood type and was laid next to her and performed a successful blood transfusion.

This story is reminiscent of the watchful hand of the Lord preserving Wanda Marshall's life and in turn Jim's. As a child Wanda had been playing behind her father who was widening an irrigation ditch and one section of the dirt bank was undercut and collapsed on Wanda burying her and even though her face was blue by the time her father dug her out she recovered.

Jim began his childhood living with his parents and his grandparents James Eugene Marshall and Delphia Marshall in a rented farm house south of Ashton.  Wanda was a very devoted home maker and would haul water up to the house for cooking and washing. Most mornings Jim and Karen would crowd next to the wood burning kitchen stove and smell the aromas as Wanda would stoke the fire and cook a savory breakfast of golden fried hash browns with extra butter, fried slabs of ham and eggs over easy in a large cast iron frying pan. Karen tells how Jim was a very active toddler in his high chair and would perform such antics that she would have to hide her face from laughing out loud.

When Jim was around two years old he developed a serious case of emphysema, but grandma Wanda knew the cure for that and would rub his chest down with at thick, tar-like, foul smelling salve called Ichtammol made from shale oil, which Jim considered a panacea for many ailments growing up.

A turning point in Jim's life occurred at the age of five during the summer of 1947 when Jim and a neighbor boy were playing with matches inside a large red barn. They lit the matches off inside the barn and the loose straw quickly caught on fire and the boys were soon trapped by the flames. Jim and his friend made their escape by squeezing through the manure shoot in the floor of the barn which was about one foot by one foot.  And once safely outside, the barn quickly burnt to the ground.

Jim told his children that even at that young age this event had a deep effect on him. He felt that he had narrowly escaped death and that God must have a plan for him to keep him alive and that he must be aware of him.  This caused him to look back and reflect from time to time when he got older about the deeper spiritual meaning of life.

Jim in many ways had an idyllic childhood with two loving parents and a doting mother. Life revolved around planting crops in the spring, the potato harvest in the fall and the cattle drives in the late Spring and Fall, with a fun mix of fishing trips and pack trips in the high Tetons with Don and his friend's in the middle of the summer.  Wanda would tell Don, "Jim is too young to go on a pack trip." But Don would always respond, "Oh' it's ok, he'll be fine."

Wanda ran the house like clockwork, breakfast was at 7 o'clock every morning, lunch was at noon sharp and dinner was always at 6 o'clock. And there was no point in coming up the stairs to eat dinner if you had not thoroughly washed your hands, because Wanda would notice.

Jim and Karen (his older sister by 3 1/2 years)  became fast friends during their childhood and maintained a special relationship throughout their life.  They spent countless hours playing in the irrigation ditches, making mud pies, catching frogs and water snakes, having paper boat races, building forts and using their imagination to invent all sorts of games.

Jim's favorite summer job was spraying weeds with his Grandpa Glenn Orgill. Glen had a weed spraying rig hooked up to a jeep with two booms, one off the front bumper on each side of the Jeep.  And since he was farming in a wild sort of country with lots of patches of chokecherry bushes and aspen trees he had Jim sit on the hood of the jeep and whenever one of the booms got too close to a chokecherry patch or a tree it was Jim's job was to move the boom out of the way.  It was a bumpy ride but Jim loved it.

Sunday's were a special occasion in the Summer growing up. Wanda would usually spend Saturday butchering the young chickens and making fried chicken and potato salad for a Sunday picnic. After going to church the rest of the day would be spent picnicking.

Birthdays were also special occasion growing up because Wanda would make you a moist chocolate cake with a half inch of solid, milk chocolate homemade fudge frosting on top.

When Jim was younger he kept asking his dad for his own horse for his birthday.  Don didn't really have an extra horse to give Jim, but Jim kept persisting and Don said, "We will see what we can do."  So on his birthday Don took Jim out to the barn yard and the gate to the barnyard was open and there were hoof prints going from the barnyard out to the main county road…they followed the hoof prints for a while and Don then turned to Jim and said, "I'm sorry but that horse is gone for good, next time we will just have to make sure to get a horse that won't run away on us."

Jim grew up in a very self-sufficient family, and Wanda was a prolific canner of fruits and vegetables and they usually only bought basic staples like sugar from the grocery store.

The historic winter of 1948 to 1949 in eastern Idaho shut down the schools and caused almost everyone to be snowed in for about two months and this turned out to be one of the most enjoyable times of Jim and Karen's childhood as the family stayed indoors playing board games, laughing, feasting on Christmas leftovers and hanging out around the fireplace.

In 1952, at ten years old Jim went on an adventurous family road trip. At the time you could buy a car cheaper at the factory, so the family hopped on the Union Pacific train to Detroit and then drove the new car home the scenic way via Tallahassee FL, New Orleans LA, Texas and Arizona.

The highlight of every year was the potato harvest, the cattle drives and Christmas. Jim loved the potato harvest because of the family camaraderie and sense of accomplishment that it brought to the small family.  And everybody loved the cattle drives because they were just a lot of fun.  Another highlight growing up was in the evening when Karen and Jim would lay on their backs around the radio and listen to Gunsmoke and other western dramas that were so thrilling to young minds.

When Jim grew up all of the telephones in the area were on a party line so anyone in the neighborhood could pick up the phone and listen to your conversation without you knowing about it.  And there were a couple of older ladies that spent much of the day silently listening on the phone. This led to an endless amount of entertainment, teenage pranks, and lots of funny stories.

Don did a lot of hunting and Jim loved to go hunting as he got older. He was particularly proud of one hunting trip when he shot a moose, elk and a mule deer all in the same day.

Karen and Jim also loved to go skiing at Bear Gulch when they were in high school.

Jim enjoyed wrestling and in high school became North Fremont's first state champion in 1958.

Some of Jim's best friends growing up were Dick Seeley, Brent Harshbarger, Doug Fransen, Tommy Murdoch, John Hess, Narven (Pink) Jackson, and Rodney Osborne.

Jim was followed by two younger siblings to join the family—J'lene and Tracy—and although separated by many years he built close relationships with them and was a key positive influence throughout their lives.

After high school Jim had 18 months of active duty in the Idaho National Guard and then attended Ricks College and Utah State University earning a bachelors of science in Agronomy in 1966.

After graduating he got a job with the soil conservation service covering south eastern Idaho.  One of his favorite jobs during this time was going up into the mountains and measuring the snow pack.  He said that this job gave him a lot of time to think and he felt like he was floundering at this point in his life with no solid direction and was looking for something more.

It was during this time that he had an event that changed his life's history and that of his descendants in a remarkable way.  Out of the blue his bishop invited him in and extended a call for him to go on a mission even though he was 27 years old.

Even though this call has been extended to him in his younger years he was now seriously considering it. But he was apprehensive and did not know what to do. So he went to his good friends John and Shirley Hess's home and asked John what he should do.  John said, "Go on a mission Jim, it will be the best decision of your whole life!" That was just the encouragement that my dad needed to hear and he went back to the bishop and told him that he would go on a mission.

Jim served a successful and rewarding mission in Florida (1969-1971) he particularly liked serving in the panhandle where he made a lot of friends, and one family that he was instrumental in baptizing even came and visited him in Salt Lake later in life.

After coming home from his mission he attended Brigham Young University in Provo and was the oldest man in the singles ward and soon became acquainted with Colleen Calder and they started dating.

After obtaining a masters degree in Agronomy from BYU Jim moved back to Idaho.  Colleen had also finished a masters degree and moved to Rexburg so she could date Jim and started taking some more classes at Ricks College. But at the last moment Colleen found out that there were no rooms left in the dorms, so she decided to withdraw from school.  She had to go to each teacher individually to withdraw from the class.  When she went to Del Parson Sr. the art teacher he asked her, "why she was withdrawing and she said that she did not have a room to stay in."  He then told her that she could stay at his house.  Del Parson really liked Jim and he made sure that everything was "just so" whenever he came over.

Jim Marshall was sealed to his sweetheart Colleen Calder for time and all eternity in the Logan Temple on April 18, 1975. Jim always consider this his greatest and most important accomplishment in life. Jim wanted to make sure to get married on his birthday so he never forgot his anniversary.

After getting married Jim and Colleen spent the first two years of their married life in Monteview, Idaho working on a cattle and sheep ranch.

The family then moved to Salt Lake where Jim managed gas stations for his father-in-law David Calder before moving to Lyman, Wyoming in 1988 to manage the Gas-N-Go truck stop. Jim retired in 2009 and then moved to Ashton, Idaho.

Jim is the father of four sons Travis, James, Aaron, and Ladd— and grandfather to 17 grandchildren.

Jim's faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ was always his foundation and rock, he frequently bore his testimony of Jesus Christ's mission to his children as they grew up.

Jim loved to take his children home teaching and to priesthood meetings.

Jim and Colleen both showed their faith through their actions as they were service oriented and always tried to help people who might be in need. Jim had a close relationship with all of his children and strove to teach them truth and impart his life lessons to them.

Jim is survived by his son's Travis (Michelle) Marshall, James (Diana) Marshall, Aaron (Ruth) Marshall, Ladd (Katie) Marshall and siblings Karen (Chad) Neilson, J'lene (Jim) Lewis and Tracey -Flint-Marshall.

The Marshall family would like to especially thank Homestead manger Jared Howell for letting my dad follow him around wherever he went at work, for a whole year. Allowing Jim to be his shadow, whether he was typing or walking, he became Jared's buddy and "unofficial office assistant." Few people have that kind of patience and charity and we are grateful to him.

Funeral services will be held at 12:00 noon on Friday, September 26, at the Ashton LDS Stake Center with Bishop David Hess of the Black Springs Ward officiating.  The family will receive friends and family from 11:00 to 11:45 a.m. on Friday at the stake center prior to services.  Interment will be in the Parker Cemetery.

Jim's Funeral Program

Services will be streamed at: https://my.gather.app/remember/jim-marshall