MaryJane "Pinky" McBrier

1950 - 2014

June 25, 1950~August 13, 2014
Pinky was born to Martha (Quiquin) Hodgkinson of Santa Cruz, Bolivia and Harold Brady of Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 25, 1950 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. She died in an automobile accident in Blaine County, Idaho on August 13, 2014.
When Pinky was just a child, Pinky's parents divorced and her mother remarried Joaquin Aguirre Levayen of Cochabamba, Bolivia who we all consider to have been Pinky's father. During childhood schooldays, the family - which consisted of Walter, Bill, Pinky, Monina, Joaquin and Miguel, lived in Bogota and Barranquilla, Columbia where their father worked first in the supermarket industry and then invented a process to dehydrate bananas for baby foods. In furtherance of the banana business, the family moved to Guayaquil, Ecuador where Pinky spent her middle and high school years.
In 1969 Ric McBrier of Erie, Pennsylvania spotted Pinky walking across the quad at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. They both were freshman and fell directly in love. Pinky first studied architecture, then switched to sociology for a major. The two spent their college years traveling in the south and working as activists against the Vietnam War. In the fall of 1973 Pinky graduated and Pinky and Ric were married in Bogota, Columbia on December 29, 1973. They moved to Salt Lake City where Ric attended the University of Utah law school.
While Ric worked in various capacities, Pinky and Ric raised their two boys to be the fine men that they are today - Parker Nathaniel McBrier and Walter Hodgkinson McBrier. Parker, his wife Lauren and two-year old son Nathaniel, live in Park City, Utah. Walter, his wife Devin and their two-year old son Joaquin, live in Boise, Idaho.
Pinky had a playful love of young children and was well known with the children of the Salt Lake Yalecrest neighborhood as a source for certain fun. The family hiked and camped throughout the intermountain west and became regular skiers at Alta and Snowbird. There was a special love for Utah's red rock desert country. Many trips were made to South America to visit Pinky's extended family residing there.
In the 1990s, Pinky founded Salt Lake's successful Inlingua language center where she worked in the languages of the world. Ric and Pinky traveled the globe, with Pinky summiting Kenya's Mount Kilimanjaro in 2005. Most recently Ric and Pinky have spent much time at their home in beloved San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, whose people inspire them.
Pinky was a passionate artist, reflected throughout her life's contributions. The family home in Salt Lake's avenue district is replete with her special charm. Pinky held a great love for her animals. There were the cats Mishu, Moto and Suni and the dogs, - the Vizsals, Hagar and Singani and the German wirehair pointers, Chewbacca and Miss Money Penny. Miss Money Penny survived the accident and is with us here today.
Throughout the world, Pinky touched people with her smile, warmth, unending energy, and sense of adventure. A review of the outpouring of grief in the social media is heart rending. Our hearts are broken. Ric, Parker and Walter express our deep gratitude to all family and friends who now support us. We miss you Pinky.
On Monday, August 18, 2014 at 5:30 PM there will be a Celebration of Dear Pinky to be held at Memory Grove in Salt Lake's City Creek Park, a favorite walking venue for Pinky and her dogs. Everyone is welcome. Light refreshments to follow at the Memorial House in Memory Grove. A second celebration of Pinky's life will be held in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in September 2014.
Gifts of support may be made to the Utah Humane Society in Pinky's name.