A tribute to the writing life of Leta Marshall

The writing life of Leta Marshall will be celebrated in a Writers Read evening, Friday at 7:30 in the Lopez Center. The event, being planned by Marshall’s writing group, marks the first anniversary of her death last February.

Marshall threw herself into everything she was passionate about and writing was one of them. For almost 10 years she wrote popular and highly-read articles for The Islands’ Weekly on a broad range of subjects, everything from upcoming island events, to a much-loved story about newts.

At the tribute evening, members of Marshall’s writing group will read her published work from SHARK REEF, the online literary magazine of the Lopez Writers Guild; favorite articles from the Weekly and other pieces of her work.

One member of the group described how Marshall’s writing seemed effortless. “When we were writing together in meetings, words flowed from Leta’s pen like water while, for the rest of us, it came in fits and starts. And what she wrote seemed perfect; no polishing required.”

As a 12-year-old, Marshall had a bout of Hodgkin’s disease, and the radiation she received to treat it damaged her heart. She received a pacemaker just prior to her daughter’s birth and required daily medication for the last decades of her life. Because of her weakened heart, Marshall often said she didn’t expect to reach the age of 50. That knowledge colored how she and her husband Stewart lived their lives, seizing the moment every single day. Leta Marshall died of heart failure just before her 53rd birthday.

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