Ogilvie loses battle with lung cancer

SANDPOINT — After a long battle with lung cancer, Sandpoint Mayor Marsha Ogilvie, 64, passed away Wednesday morning surrounded by her friends and family.

Ogilvie spent most of last year balancing medical treatments with her duties as mayor. At the beginning of November, she empowered City Council President Carrie Logan to officiate meetings and sign papers on her behalf while she focused on her treatment schedule.

With Ogilvie’s passing, Logan’s position as interim mayor will stand until Wednesday, at which point the City Council will nominate someone to take over the office to serve out the remaining two years. If Logan, who expressed a willingness to take the office, is nominated and voted in by council members, she will have to appoint an individual to take her council seat.   

In the meantime, city business is a distant second priority as family, friends and colleagues grieve their loss.

“City Hall is a pretty sad place right now,” Logan said.  

A fixture of local government and local activism for the last several years, Ogilvie was born in Riverside, Calif., and attended Pepperdine University. She and her husband, Francis, moved to Sandpoint in 1994. The pair started their life in North Idaho as small business owners, managing downtown shops The Candy Cottage and All Smiles.

It didn’t take Ogilvie long to get involved with the local community. Her first foray into public service was her role as a Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteer working for the legal rights of children.

This served as a natural launching pad to her co-founding of Kinderhaven in 1996, a local nonprofit dedicated to serving neglected and abused children. During Ogilvie’s 13-year presidency of Kinderhaven, the nonprofit sheltered more than 1,000 children. After passing leadership of Kinderhaven on to other individuals, Ogilvie remained an essential advisory voice for the organization right up to her death.

“What she did was form a non-governmental community response to help children who are abused and neglected,” Judge Debra Heise said. “It’s a phenomenal thing. Most people look to the government for that sort of (service).”  

Ogilvie commonly cited the establishment of Kinderhaven as one of her finest moments. The community and even the state agreed, honoring the organization with Idaho’s first “Brightest Star” grand prize award in 2002.  

Ogilvie was also active in the Community Assistance League, a women’s organization that annually raises thousands for local nonprofits, college-bound students and more through its volunteer-staffed upscale retail store, Bizarre Bazaar.

According to Logan, Ogilvie had a few accomplishments that she was particularly proud of during her time as a council member and mayor. For instance, she often spoke of her part in the city’s decision to remove fluoride from city water, Logan said. Ogilvie also took great pleasure in honoring volunteers, exemplified aptly through her founding of Women Honoring Women in 1999. And of course, the plight of abused and neglected children was never far from her mind.

“The loss of Mayor Ogilvie will leave an irreplaceable void in the heart of our community,” Logan said. “She tirelessly dedicated herself to protecting the most vulnerable and celebrating the generosity of the many volunteers who give of themselves in and around Sandpoint.”