Piano at Madison Memorial honors woman who has contributed years of service to hospital and community
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REXBURG — After 21 years of volunteer service, former Rexburg city councilwoman, music teacher and longtime community advocate Marsha Bjornn is stepping away from the Madison Memorial Hospital Foundation. The hospital honored her years of volunteer service with the dedication of a new front lobby piano on Dec. 1, which community members will use to provide a comforting ambience to the hospital.
Bjornn served as the first president of the Madison Memorial Foundation Board in 2004. The organization serves as a major community coordinator and organizes fundraising events to furnish hospital equipment, programs and services.
The ceremony punctuates a lifetime of civic service. Bjornn has an extensive record of public service and community leadership in Rexburg and across Idaho. She served on the Rexburg City Council from 1995 to 2004 and has held numerous state-level appointments, including positions with the Idaho Humanities Council, the Idaho Commission on the Arts, and the Idaho Magistrate Judges Commission. She has been politically active for over 30 years within the Republican Party, has organized more than 30 fundraisers, chaired a nine-county region and is a state officer for women’s political involvement. She has been inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame.
Outside of her civic work, she is a mother of seven married children, grandmother to 32 and describes herself as a “people person” who values friendships across all ages.
The Madison Memorial Hospital Foundation was created more than two decades ago when hospital leaders were pursuing a grant from the Murdock Foundation. To qualify, they needed demonstrated community involvement and matching funds. That need sparked a grassroots effort. Resident Linda Porter contacted community members, inviting them to serve on a newly formed board. One of those first calls went to Bjornn, who agreed to serve. She soon became the foundation’s first president, a position she would occupy three different times over two decades.
“We were new together,” Bjornn said of her fellow board members. “(Some of us) had a lot of training on how to raise money. … We had bylaws, committees and education on what we should do.”
Over the years, the hospital foundation learned new fundraising practices, built relationships and helped create a culture of community support for the hospital.
The foundation’s annual golf tournament is held every August in Rexburg. The event earned $8,000 its first year but now brings in more than $80,000 as of 2025. The tournament accommodates 34 team spots and has become one of the largest tournaments in the region. One local benefactor, Richard Larsen, has donated more than $1 million over the years, funding projects ranging from surgical systems to specialized infant care for “angel babies,” premature infants who require clothing, specialized equipment and family support.
Outside the hospital building stands a statue titled “The Caregiver,” created by sculptor Matt Geddes and commissioned by Bjornn as president of the hospital foundation. Bjornn says that brothers Blair and Richard Larsen served as major benefactors, and she regards it as one her most meaningful accomplishments.
One of Bjornn’s favorite projects was acquiring a grand piano for the hospital lobby, intended to create a more welcoming, uplifting environment for visitors. The project was close to her heart as a piano teacher for the Brigham Young University-Idaho. Bjornn also prepares and practices a public recital every year, performed on both piano and organ.
“I’ve been in a lot of hospitals,” she said. “A piano brings a refining quality, a place to gather, to get people’s minds off their problems.”
The dedication of the front lobby piano in her honor came as a surprise to her, despite her involvement in its acquisition. She didn’t know until a recent Christmas celebration, when hospital staff put Bjornn in the spotlight, rehearsing her contributions to the hospital and unveiling a temporary sign, which will later become a permanent placard, honoring her “for her leadership and passion for music. Her service will leave a lasting impression for years to come.”
“I never would have dreamed that in a thousand years,” she said of the ceremony. “I always think of what we have done, not what I have done.”
Doug McBride, the hospital’s executive director for business development, praised Bjornn as instrumental in the progress of the hospital and foundation.
“It was a special tribute to Marsha,” he said. “We just appreciate so much all that she’s done for our hospital.”