She was born May 4, 1940, in Ely, Nevada, to Billie and Marian Marriott, of Osceola, Nevada, the second of three children. Leanne and her husband, Ingmar J. Njus, had been married for sixty years.
Leanne grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. She graduated from Granite High School in 1958 and went on to attend the University of Utah where she was a pre-med major. While attending the University of Utah she met this young midshipman, Ingmar J. Njus. They married and began an amazing life together.
They lived in many places during his Navy career: Long Beach, California; San Diego, California; Oakland, California; Monterey, California; Rhode Island; Midway Island; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Vienna, Virginia. No matter where the Navy took their family, she always became active in the community. She was a girl scout leader in Monterey and Rhode Island. In Monterey she led a Brownie troop of over 40 girls. While living in Rhode Island she started a junior church at the church they attended. She sang in the church choir. She volunteered at her children’s schools and taught music and journalism.
In addition to being a Navy wife and mother, she also worked, sometimes having as many as three jobs at the same time. She was a typesetter, editor, proofreader, production manager, for many different newspapers, engineering firms, and graphic arts companies across North America. While living on Midway Island she had her own radio show, Woman’s World. She was on the air every weekday morning and was the most listened to show on the Island. In Nova Scotia she had a newspaper column, Restaurants and Recipes, where she reviewed local restaurants and shared some of her favorite recipes.
In 1982 she started her own graphic arts firm: Get Graphic, Inc., in a small basement office in Vienna, Virginia. In the five years she owned Get Graphic, her business grew and flourished from that small office to the entire top floor of a building with more than thirty employees and over 450 clients. Word of mouth was her best source of new clients in the Washington, D.C., area. If you wanted something done right, you took it to Get Graphic.
Her interests and talents were many. She loved music. She sang and played several instruments, including the piano and the accordion. She acted and directed in little theater in Monterey and on Midway Island. On Midway she helped start and build the Little Theater. She made porcelain and ceramics at both of those duty stations as well. She was an avid reader, loved to cook, to sew, was the pitcher on a women’s softball team, bowled in leagues on Midway Island and in Washington, D.C., traveled, and enjoyed working crossword puzzles.
Playing card games was also a favorite activity. She loved to play bridge. On Midway Island she started the Duplicate Bridge Club.
More than anything, she loved being with people . . . and people loved being with her. She was a great storyteller. She would share life stories with anyone around her.
She is survived by her husband, Ingmar; her daughter, Kathryn; her son, Kevin; and nieces and nephews, Cara, Anjala, and Tycos. Her youngest son, Michael, predeceased her earlier this year. Her sister, Laura McGhie, and her brother, Darrell Marriott, also predeceased her.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Leanne’s memory to the American Cancer Society or Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation (AAMDS).
Funeral Services can be viewed Live Stream via Facebook Live. Please follow Palm South Jones Mortuary on Facebook to receive notification when services begin.
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