Marion Haws passed away peacefully of natural causes on Mother’s Day, May 14, 2023. She was 90 years old and lived a full and abundant life. She is the mother of 7 children, 30 grandchildren, and 22 great-grandchildren. Each of her children had visited her for Mother’s Day before she passed that day.
Marion was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was an only child. Her father helped provide for her and her mother during the difficult years of the depression by taking paying customers for airplane rides in an airplane he had built himself. At an early age, Marion had her own leather flying helmet and would fly frequently with her father in his airplane. During her adolescent years, her father flew cargo planes during World War II and was thereafter employed by the US Air Force as an aircraft inspector. As a result, the family moved from place to place around the country. As Marion grew up and she had many varied experiences living in many different places. She developed a strong bond with her mother, Eleanor, who was a wonderful musician, seamstress, cook and homemaker.
Marion had a powerful intellect and excelled in her schoolwork in virtually all subjects. After high school graduation she attended UC Berkeley and graduated with her Bachelor of Science degree in zoology in 1954. After graduation she stayed in the Bay area and enrolled in the graduate program to become a licensed physical therapist. During the first week of the new program, at a casual dinner among college students at her apartment complex, she met Karl Haws who had just begun dental school a few days before at UC San Francisco. The connection was almost instant, and they learned that they were both members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were engaged within 3 months of their first meeting and were married at the end of the school year. Karl and Marion were both the first members of their respective families to attend college. Their feelings for each other were based in large part on a desire to raise a large family within their faith and to raise their children together and teach them to work and to serve. They also had great admiration for each other’s strength, sense of adventure, work ethic, and capacity.
After their marriage in the Salt Lake City Temple of the LDS Church, they returned to dental school for the remaining three years and Marion earned the money as a physical therapist working with children with cerebral palsy to fund her husband’s education. They were married for over 68 years. After graduation, Karl completed a two-year commitment as a dentist for the US Army and then the couple settled in Santa Barbara, California, where Karl had grown up. There, he opened a dental practice that spanned over 50 years. By the time Karl and Marion moved to Santa Barbara, they had two children.
Upon moving to Santa Barbara, Marion devoted the next 60-plus years of her life to raising her children and facilitating their growth and development as well as serving countless others in the community and in her church. She had a son, then two daughters and then four more sons. She gave birth to her last son in 1979, at the age of 47. Marion had many pursuits that she taught and shared with her children. She was a fine tennis player and snow skier. She owned her own baseball glove (left-handed) and knew how to use it. She loved boating and the outdoors and drove her own ATV in the mountains well into her 70s. She loved classical music and sacred choral music and all seven of her children learned to play at least one musical instrument. All seven of her children also sang in the Santa Barbara High School choral program with famed director Phyllis Zimmerman. Marion was the president of the Santa Barbara High School PTA three different times and served her last term at age 63. She was active in cub scouts and boy scouts and all five of her sons are Eagle Scouts as well as 15 of her grandsons. All along the way, she taught, corrected, served, healed, guided, and loved her posterity and many others of their friends and family members. She insisted that her children express themselves with proper grammar and in thoughtful dialogue and sound argument. She taught her children to appreciate art and culture and did everything with a sense of elegance and grace. She has left a legacy of accomplishment and commitment and will be remembered for generations to come. Her most important legacy was nurturing the faith and spirituality of her family. She modeled living a faithful Christian life of integrity by praying, teaching, singing, and participating in frequent and regular church related activities. She taught that families are eternal, and we look forward to seeing her again.
Marion is survived by her husband, Karl N. Haws, Jr. and her children Karl “Kasey” (Julia), Andrea (Jim), Lauren (Ken), Max (Kelli), Peter (Gretchen), Adam (Camene), and Aaron (Heather). Services will be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 2107 Santa Barbara St., Santa Barbara, California at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 27, 2023. There will be a public viewing from 10:15 a.m. to 10:45 a. m. Marion will be buried in the Mink Creek Cemetery adjacent to the Mink Creek LDS Chapel in Mink Creek, Idaho, on June 3, 2023. There will be a brief graveside service at 11 a.m.
