Marti Frankovich, age 88, passed away peacefully, with family at her side and the support of IHC Hospice and the caring nursing and doctors at St. George Regional Hospital in St. George, Utah on November 21, 2022. While Covid-19 Pneumonia took her from us, it was exacerbated by her ongoing fight with Primary Progressive Aphasia, a form of dementia which took her ability to speak but not think, or to win the speed racer award with her blue 3 wheeler walker, take up painting, enjoy visits from her family & friends, brighten everyone with her smile, harass the love of her life, Tony, husband of 59 years to eat, or tap her toes to music which was the heart and soul of her life.

Her Mother, Blanche Violet Plummer Lyman and Daddy, Dwight Arthur Lyman predeceased her.  Her husband, Tony; children and their spouses, Bruce (Sharon), Shannon, Mat (Mecell), Tony (Connie) and Kim; grandchildren Dana, Daniel, Anton, Victoria, Anthony IV; great grandchildren Brooklyn, Aria, Lily, Grayson, Brexton; sisters, brothers and their spouses, Kathryn (George), Helen (RIP Alan), Don (Judy) and Duane (Pat) and a number of nieces and nephews, will manage to carry on keeping the faith, raising a glass to ‘juice it up’, and tapping their toes to Marti’s favorite music until they join her again.

The family intends to have a celebration of her life and music in Salt Lake City, Spring 2023.  Marti’s final resting place will be with Tony when the time comes, in his home state of Pennsylvania. 

In lieu of flowers, the family requests you consider a donation in Marti’s name to the National Aphasia Association (https://www.aphasia.org/donate/), Special Olympics (https://support.specialolympics.org), orFeeding America (https://give.feedingamerica.org). A special thank you to her speech therapist at St. George Medical Center and the staff at Southgate Senior Living, Alliance Home Health, her physical therapist and Home Helpers who helped care for Marti in the last few years. 

Marti, born at her Grandma Plummer’s house in Coats, Kansas on August 17, 1934, developed her love of music around 3 years old, as she remembers and was told to her 4 siblings, 5 children, 5 grandchildren and 6 great children in two memoirs she wrote, ‘’88 Keys, an Alto Sax, and a Drum, Musical Memories from your Mom, Martha Lyman Frankovich” and The Lyman Sunflower Kids, Growing up in Coats, Kansas.” She started with banging her Mother’s cooking lids in the kitchen, advanced to stealing piano practice time from her sisters Kathryn and Helen as they did the dishes, to the snare drummer in the Coats Band, playing alto sax, endless piano lessons from Marie Brickel, and numerous piano recitals with her dear friend Marilyn Shriver. One of her most thrilling events before heading for Colorado Women’s College to earn an Associate Degree in Music, was with Elaine Lunt, playing a dual piano recital to 300 lucky attendees at the Pratt, Kansas Municipal Building in 1952.

Martha’s brothers, Don and Duane, were usually run out of the house when she was practicing the piano and were made to attend her recitals.  Her Dad ran off a number of boyfriends and other people over her teen years. She was a super sister when she lived in Denver and the brothers stayed with her while attending school or working.  She was a wonderful tour guide of Lake Powell and Utah when they visited the boat on vacation.

After Colorado Women’s College, Marti entered Denver University planning to major in music education. She ultimately majored in Education and minored in Music because she had to work when the courses required for a music major where offered, and as she said …”at that time in history, an educated women could do three things: become a nurse, a teacher or a secretary to some man.”

Marti spent the next 26 years (1961-1987) positively impacting thousands of children and all she met in elementary classrooms throughout Colorado, California and Utah. She taught all elementary grades except first and fourth and was the music director officially or unofficially in all schools she worked. This included four years as Salt Lake School District’s Elementary School Music Specialist where she was responsible for classroom music in all the elementary schools, co-developed, wrote and received her first of many grants for the fine arts program “Arts in Action” that produced art, drama, dance and music projects for the district. During this time, at the urging of her husband Tony, she received her Master of Education from Brigham Young University in 1979, and in 1981, received “Utah’s Outstanding Elementary Teacher” award from the Utah Music Educators Association.

For 9 years (1987 - 1996) Marti was the beloved Elementary Principal of Lowell Elementary in Salt Lake City, UT with 42 amazing faculty and staff and 525 beautiful students annually from diverse backgrounds who attended one of two successful programs, Continuous Progress or Extended Learning. During her years at Lowell she helped write and received more than $12 million in grant funding from the Annenberg Foundation, Intermountain Health Care, Utah State Board of Education, and others to help fund character education, teacher training and community collaboration. In 1993, she was the co-author of I-CARE, a how to on implementing character education in the classroom that was used throughout Utah emphasizing Integrity, Compassion, Action, Responsibility and Excellence. Her awards continued with the Utah Educator of the Year award in 1994 and Principal of the Year in 1996.

For the next four years (1996-2000) as Area Director K-12 for the Salt Lake School District, she implemented the Annenburg Grant, was mentor to countless education graduates from Brigham Young University and prior to retirement in 2000, was the interim principal for Saint Sophia and Lowell School prior to it’s closing in 2004.

In retirement, Marti and Tony fulfilled their life long dream of traveling the world with friends including multiple trips to Paris and Croatia (her favorites), Ireland, Austria, Germany, Alaska, Mexico, Antarctica (on a boat) and France. Marti spent countless vacations and holidays on Lake Powell with Tony where they had a boat and hosted family and friends from around the world.  A Sunday favorite of hers, before moving to St. George, was watching the Pittsburgh Steelers with Tony and her grandkids. She enjoyed Sister reunions with Helen and Kathryn in Park City, Utah reminiscing about Kansas, careers and families but never solved world peace or the intricacies of family dynamics.

We expect Marti to continue to smile, dance, laugh, eat chocolate cake and do whatever the hell she wants soaring with the eagles in the heavenly stars and enjoying her favorite Kansas wheat and sunflower fields.