Marion Passey was raised in the mountains of California, where everyone lived in a log cabin (and without doubt still do). She attended a one-room country school and was taught by her mother. She remembers writing poems during her early years while sitting on the trunk of a felled tree near her home.

Later, she attended a three teacher, three building high school before moving to San Bernadino, CA. She graduated from Redlands University with teaching credentials and completed additional studies at Brigham Young University.

When her four children were small, she entered and won numerous contests including contests for last lines, twenty-five word statements, slogans, etc. The sponsors awarded her three cars, a trip to Hawai'i, bicycles, watches, vacuums, even a clothes dryer tha …