About Marci
Photo by Mike Lovett
Listen to Marci’s interview on Richard Ostler’s Listen, Learn & Love podcast episode 663: “Marci McPhee, Active Divorced LDS, editor to Steve Young, Ostlers, Fatimah Salleh”
My friend Marci McPhee (active Latter-day Saint, now single, mother of six, grandmother of sixteen, writer & editor) joins us to talk about life lessons learned since joining the Church at age 16, being single after two temple marriages (with a cancellation of sealing between), raising a stepfamily in a duplex, her career in higher education, and now editor to folks like Steve Young, Fatimah Salleh, David Ostler, & two of my three books. Marci is dear personal friend, remarkable person, and gifted editor. Her personal story is powerful. It is one of the finest examples of “write your own story with Christ.” Richard ‘Papa’ OstlerPodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/…/episode…/id1347971725…
Read “Go Far, Stay Long, Look Deep” at LDS Women Project – an interview by friend and co-editor Trina Caudle. The interview particularly delves into Marci’s volunteer year in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, and her volunteer work in Texas and Louisiana, and a little bit about what she has learned in return.
Read “As Editor of Steve Young’s New Book, a Life-long Dream is Realized for Local Writer” by Leisa Parsons, area media specialist
BIO:
Marci McPhee was born in Germany, went to first grade in Panama, and then grew up in Texas, where she joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age 16. After graduating from Brigham Young University and spending twelve years as a fulltime mom, she began her career in higher education. She is matriarch in a stepfamily that began in the temple and ended up living in a duplex, with him and his kids on one side and her and her kids on the other. (Read her story in “Just Your Typical Mormon Family” in Apple Pies and Promises: Motherhood in the Real World.)
In 2009-10, Marci took a year-long leave of absence from her job at Brandeis University in the Boston area to volunteer as an English teacher in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. Marci has served as stake and ward Primary president, stake Relief Society board member, ward Relief Society president, early-morning seminary teacher and institute teacher. Her stories have frequently appeared in collections such as Raspberries and Relevance: Enrichment in the Real World.
After 43 years in the Boston area and 5 years in Texas, Marci now lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. To follow Marci’s adventure in her volunteer year in Baton Rouge, check out her Facebook, especially this from July 15, 2022:
Why Baton Rouge? I moved here because I wanted to do another volunteer year (similar to my WorldTeach year in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific in 2009-10). It felt safest to stay in USA with COVID and all. So I looked at a map and said, “OK, God, where are we going?” I wanted someplace warm (no more New England winters for me if I can help it). I wanted to be within walking distance of a temple. About the time I was thinking it over, Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana and a group of intrepid people from San Antonio went to volunteer for a weekend, mucking out homes of survivors. I thought, if they can go for a weekend, I can go for a year! It’s just down the street, by Texas standards! So I visited Baton Rouge in February 2022 to check it out, asking “Is this the place?” I felt clearly, “Yup. This is the place. Drive on.” I started making plans and moved into my apartment this past Tuesday! I’m volunteering with a soon-to-be-community center in a rapidly gentrifying part of town. I’ll tell you more about that when I get underway. #lakepontchartrain #batonrouge #BatonRougeLouisiana #missouririver
A tour of my minimalist popup apartment posted Jan 11, 2023, and this update from Jan. 25, 2023 when I moved more things from Texas to Louisiana and consolidated the rest of my stuff at my brother and sister-in-law’s house.
Just for fun, here are two videos recorded for Generus.com to cheer up nursing home residents during COVID: Video A (4 min): “The Bean Song,” “Peace, Salam, Shalom,” and “Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley,” and Video B (5 min): “Hello, My Baby,” “We Shall Overcome,” “Be Kind to Your Web-footed Friends.”
Marci is the editor of
- The Law of Love by Steve Young (Deseret Book, 2022)
- Listen, Learn and Love: Improving Latter-day Saint Culture by Richard Ostler (Cedar Fort Press, 2022) with co-editor Trina Caudle
- Gay LDS Crossroads: My Journey, Your Journey, and a Scripture-based Path Forward by Evan G. Smith (free e-book, July 2020)
- Fifty Five Days of Faith: Dick and Marsha Lavin’s Remarkable Life by Marsha Webb Lavin (Mulberry Books, October 2018)
- Girls’ Camp: Ideas for Today’s Leaders (Walnut Springs Press, 2016), with co-editor Julia B. Blake
- Sunday Lessons and Activities for Kids (Walnut Springs Press, 2015)
- a founding writer of PrimaryinZion.wordpress.com, and
- contributor to RealLifeAnswers.org.