Vivian Verneda Marx

Vivian Verneda Marx

07/18/1930 - 09/17/2019

Vivian Verneda Marx was born July 18, 1930 in Norton, Kansas the first-born daughter of Everett and Nellie Holland. She passed away Tuesday, September 17, 2019. 

With the devastating Dust Bowl years exacerbating the impact of the Great Depression, in 1934, Everett packed their Model T Ford and headed for Washington State with the hope of creating a better life for his young family, which now included Vivian’s sister Velda. Eventually they moved to Colville where Vivian’s youngest sister, Virginia, was born. 

At Colville High, Vivian excelled in everything she attempted. She loved to sing and was a member of the glee club and the elite Triple Trio. Quite the athlete, Vivian not only performed as a majorette and with the tumbling team, she was also a fierce competitor at the bowling alley. 

In 1948, Vivian married her high school sweetheart Joe Marx. They moved to Spokane’s Peaceful Valley where Vivian attended beauty school and Joe worked as a mechanic during the day and attended technical school at night. 

With the birth of their son, Michael, Vivian and Joe moved to their home on Grace Avenue in St. Aloysius Gonzaga parish where their four children, Michael, Marie, Martin and Jeannine attended school. In 1964, they moved into a home they built on ten-acres off Hatch Road in Colbert. 

Vivian and Joe loved to dance and were active members of the Buttons & Bows square dance troupe often caravanning to regional cities and even performing at Expo ‘74. 

Always an athlete and a born leader, Vivian was president of the Wandermere Women’s Golf League, the Washington Women’s insurance Association, the Loon Lake Eagles and her Lilac Lanes bowling league.

In 1988 Vivian married Otto Weitensteiner, a dairy farmer from Valley, Washington where her love of landscape oil painting would flourish. 

Vivian’s later years were spent at Fairwood Retirement Community in Spokane. She is preceded in death by her parents and both husbands and survived by her two sisters Velda McCammon and Virginia Jensen of Colville along with her children Michael Marx (Laura Carroll), Marie Marx Strohm, Martin Marx (Barbara) and Jeannine Marx Fruci (Dave), six grandchildren, Zach Marx (Debbie), Peggy Lagerstrom (Ryan), Melina Marx, Denise Marx (Yuuki Wakasugi), Jelsomina Fruci and Kristana Fruci (Xan Gilmartin), and great grandchildren, Corbin Marx, Cheyenne Lagerstrom, Kiden and Bodhi Wakasugi. 

Sister, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, auntie, girlfriend and all round wonderful woman…that is the life and legacy of our dear, sweet mom, Vivian Marx. 

A mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Saturday, October 26, 2019, 10 a.m. at St. Aloysius Church, 330 E. Boone Ave, Spokane. A reception will follow at the Volkar Center for Athletic Achievement in the Karen Gaffney Champions Room on the second floor of the building just west of the McCarthey Athletic Center on the campus of Gonzaga University.  Burial will be at Calvary Cemetery in Colville at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Spokane, 121 S. Arthur Street, Spokane WA 99202. 

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