Marco Callister

MARCO CALLISTER Marco Christensen Callister, 63-year resident of Las Vegas, and mother of former Nevada State Senator and City Councilman Matthew Callister, died peacefully, holding her son's hand, Oct. 7, 2010. She was 89. Marco met her husband, former attorney Robert Callister, in Las Vegas, and together they raised their five children here. A homemaker, she enjoyed the companionship of hundreds of friends, family and relatives in Las Vegas. Marco was the child of a jovial immigrant Danish carpenter, Christen N. Christensen, and a proper English mother, Edith Rushton. She was the granddaughter of Edwin and Sarah Robinson Rushton who were driven from their homes in Nauvoo, Ill., during the expulsion of Mormons there after their prophet, Joseph Smith, was martyred. As a young girl, she never forgot sitting on her grandmother's lap hearing about the unyielding testimony of their prophet. Marco has shared these memories with her three sons, two daughters and all 26 grandchildren. Raised in the "Roaring 20's," she was born Aug. 19, 1921, in Salt Lake City. Her father taught Sunday school to Mormon Church president, Gordon B. Hinckley. During the "Great Depression," Marco graduated from high school at age 15 and earned a degree in elementary education from the University of Utah at age 19. When World War II started, she gave up teaching in Salt Lake City and moved to San Francisco to work for United Airlines. Marco claimed "the most important spiritual moment of my life came when I drove my parents back to Palmyra, N.Y., to visit sights sacred to Mormon Church history." A few months later, she joined her two older brothers who had moved to the young town of Las Vegas to set up shop in the jewelry and upholstery businesses. "The town was so small that I got matched up with Robert Marshall Callister by three different people within days after his arrival here," she wrote. They married in the Salt Lake Temple, Oct. 17, 1947. He died one day before their 52nd wedding anniversary. Besides serving as a teacher, drama director and Relief Society president in the Mormon Church, Marco took great pleasure in attending a Sunday Night Study Group, two weekly institute classes, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Lone Mountain Camp and thousands of musical and dramatic productions throughout the valley. She is survived by her five children, attorney Daniel Q. (Janice) Callister of Palm Springs, Calif., Christene M. (Ronald) Reynolds of Las Vegas, Dr. Tracy Q. (Sheri Ann) Callister of Hendersonville, Tenn., attorney Matthew Q. (Jacki) Callister of Las Vegas, and Mara M. (Dennis) Maservy of Las Vegas; 26 grandchildren; one step-grandchild; and 29 great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband; one granddaughter, Catherine Edith Callister; and all six siblings, M.J., Rush and Max Christensen, Ruth Wright, Faye Bromley and Beth Waldo. Viewing will be 5-7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 11, at Palm Mortuary, 7400 W. Cheyenne Ave. A second viewing will be from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12, with her funeral service following at 1 p.m., both at the LDS Las Vegas Stake Center, 3400 W. Charleston Blvd., a chapel she proudly helped raise money to build over 50 years ago. Interment will be at Memory Gardens, 7251 W. Lone Mountain Road.