Mirian Wadsworth

1920 - 2014

1920 ~ 2014
Salt Lake City, UT-Mary Mirian Bailey Wadsworth, aged 94, peacefully let go of her passionate earthly ties early on the morning of October 17, 2014. How lucky we were to have had the past week enjoying her wonderful stories and feeling her immense love. We can bear this good-bye knowing that at last she has rejoined Daddy and is now foxtrotting with him on the stars.
Mirian was born April 21, 1920 to Leonard R. Bailey and Mary Butterworth Bailey in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her life bridged the last vestiges of the 19th century into the computer age. She spent her childhood in the Great Depression, her young adulthood through World War II, and raised her family of six daughters through the excitement and turmoil of the sixties and seventies. Over her 94 years, she watched the modern world unfold. She was a master storyteller as well as historical scholar. Up to the last day of her life, she narrated her personal stories and made her century worth of experiences come to life for her children and grandchildren.
Mirian was a voracious reader as well as gifted writer. Over her lifetime, she wrote numerous poems, children's verse and short stories. While a senior at the University of Utah, she served as editor of the Pen, the University's literary magazine. She loved her years on campus as they became the backdrop to her courtship with the man who would always be the center of her life, Milton Wadsworth. They met in the only class at the University that would bring together a budding scientist and English major: the Spring Flowers of the Wasatch.
Mirian loved him for over 73 years.
Mirian and Milton were married at the Fort Douglas chapel on November 19, 1943, both in uniform. Their first daughter's birth August 8th, 1945, kept Milton from being shipped out to Japan. Once the war was over, they bought Mirian's grandparent's 1890's farm house. Over the next 40 years, they lovingly remodeled, landscaped, and expanded the family home. Even after Milton passed away in January 2013, Mirian stayed in the house on her own until a sudden illness three weeks ago put her in the hospital.
In July 1968, the Wadsworth family began their love affair with world travel. Milton was hired by the Ford Foundation to set up a graduate program at the University of the Philippines. They packed up their five unmarried daughters and the family labrador and headed off on the greatest adventure of their lives. The two years in Manila marked the beginning of extensive world travel. For the next thirty years, Mirian and Milton -- often in the company of one or more daughters -- traveled around the world, visiting every continent except Antarctica.
Mirian was the center of the family solar system. As the years passed, she became "Grandma" to everyone as well as to her ever expanding family. Grandma never met a baby she didn't love. She was so thrilled that over the past year she finally became a great grandma with the arrival of two great granddaughters. She so hated to leave knowing that two more babies were on their way. We relish the thought that she has already met them.
Mirian is survived by her daughters, Kathryn Davis, Jane Wadsworth, Amy Wadsworth (David Richardson), Leslie Wadsworth-Smith (Alan Smith), Margaret Morrison (Richard); 19 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Milton Wadsworth, daughter Cristine Blanch, and 3 grandchildren.
The family would like to thank the staff at St. Marks Hospital and Care Source Hospice for their excellent and loving care during her final three weeks. A celebration of her life will be held Monday, October 20th from 6 - 8 pm at the Wasatch Lawn Mortuary 3401 South Highland Drive. Private interment.
One October Day
A leaf will die in one October day.
It feels the brush of birdwings south
a sadness in the autumn air
and quivering against the frost
remembers springtime and the lost
sweet hours of summer.
Now that the day has come
the brittle fibers bend before the wind
and with a sigh
a leaf drifts down
its small green miracle accomplished
its purpose done.
Mirian Wadsworth