Barbara Ann Magna (Thorson) Skov

Barbara Ann Magna Thorson Skov died December 12, 2022. Born April 25, 1924 in Fargo, ND, she moved to Tacoma, WA at the age of one, where she spent the early part of her childhood. She moved to Los Angeles for the latter part of her child and high school years. Upon graduation, she started university at UCLA. She left the university to pursue a modeling and acting career, as Magna Thorson, which took her to New York and Rio de Janeiro where she was at the time WWII ended in August 1945. Barbara met her future husband, Robert Lawrence Skov in Rio de Janeiro. Back in New York, she started writing for a living, ghost writing true crime fiction and then the social column for Igor Cassini, brother of fashion designer, Oleg. She shared an apartment in New York with her mother. She returned to Los Angeles where she contributed to Cobina Wright’s social column. In 1953 she married Robert Lawrence Skov, a marriage that lasted for 49 years until Robert passed in 2002. She and Robert had three children, Sascha, Chris (deceased) and David. After raising her children, she completed her education, earning a B.A. and M.A. from UCLA. For the remainder of her career she worked in the administration of UCLA Dance Department and then at Marlborough Girl’s School. In her later years she lived in Seattle, WA; Clayton, CA; Temecula, CA, and Knoxville, TN.

Barbara / Magna is survived by a daughter, Sascha Skov Smith and son-in-law Christopher Clement Smith; a son, David Lucien Matthew Skov and daughter-in-law Flavia Brizio Skov, and Chris’s wife, Agnes Kohanyi; three granddaughters, Rachel King Olszko, Georgina Smith Flynn, and Esmeralda Skov; two grandsons, Davidka Skov and Gaborka Skov and four great grandchildren: Kaya Olszko, Adam Olszko, Abigail Olszko and Elizabeth Flynn. She delighted in classical music, playing the piano and cooking.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.berryhighlandmemorial.com for the Skov family.