Cecelia Ann Marcroft Tibbitts

Cecelia Ann Marcroft Tibbitts, 85, beloved wife, mother, and friend, passed away June 29, 2026, surrounded by family, in her new home in Saratoga Springs, Utah, after a recent cancer diagnosis. Cec, a name she was known by throughout her life, was born on her mother’s birthday, February 9th in 1941, to Ernest Henry Marcroft and Eliane Douady Bean, the second daughter in a family of 4 sisters. She loved her childhood growing up on the east side of Salt Lake City.

She met her husband, Kent D Tibbitts, after he had returned from active military duty in the fall of 1962, at an LDS young adults activity in Bountiful. Their first date was an all day event climbing 12,000 ft. high Mt. Baldy in the High Uintas. After a year-long courtship, they were married August 15, 1963, in the Salt Lake Temple. In 1964, they moved to Blanding, Utah, where Kent taught band in the elementary and secondary schools and Cec taught ballet and tap to the young ladies in the Blanding and Montezuma Creek, Utah area. Their three-year plan was to move back to the Wasatch Front, but there never seemed to be a reason to leave the friends and community they grew to love.

As a mother of 6, with 4 children of her own, and two Navajo Foster daughters, she graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education. She got a job for a number of years in the San Juan School District as a Youth in Custody Teacher where she had to go to jail every day! She was later asked to be a Teen-Pregnancy teacher. She, and her faithful Navajo co-worker, visited young ladies all over San Juan County and in camps and homes all over the Utah portion of the Navajo and Ute reservations.

Cec was an active LDS Church member and willingly served in many church callings. She often served in the Primary and the ladies in the Ward especially loved her Relief Society lessons for their levity using examples of her own family life. She and her husband also served as Ordinance Workers in the Monticello Temple.

In 1970, the family bought their first boat, and thus started many, many trips to Lake Powell. Cec was never a “water person” but she dutifully sat on the shore and watched all of her children and foster daughters learn to swim and water ski in the warm waters of Lake Powell. Over the years, more than 25 different foster children passed through her home. Some were Navajo infants that were just days old and too fragile to go home, but they needed to get out of the hospital where infant diseases are abundant. Many were teen boys and girls just needing a secure environment to finish high school.

She is survived by her husband Kent D, her children, ViAnn (Shayne) Hansen, Don Royal (Tammie) Tibbitts, Kent Ernest (Marilyn) Tibbitts, Ruth (Jason) Fastenau, and Navajo foster daughter Irene (William) Mackey and sisters Ruth Itow, and Bonnie (Nick) Bowler. She was preceded in death by her sister Esther Cantrell, and her Navajo foster daughter Linda (LJ) Jim. She is also survived by 12 grandchildren and several foster grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 9, 2026, at the Saratoga Springs 4th Ward Chapel, 49 E. Centennial Blvd. in Saratoga Springs, Utah. A viewing will be held that same morning at the 4th Ward Chapel from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. For those unable to attend, services will be streamed live on the Russon Mortuary & Crematory YouTube channel and this obituary page below.

A graveside service will follow at about 1:30 p.m. at Memorial Lakeview Cemetery, 1640 E. Lakeview Drive, Bountiful, Utah.

The family expresses their heartfelt gratitude for the many acts of love and kindness from the Saratoga Springs 4th Ward members and the skilled efforts of the medical and professional staff at University of Utah and Huntsman Cancer Hospitals and the Bristol Hospice staff.