Virgina Lee (Ginny Lee) Mylar

Virginia Lee Mylar (Ginny Lee) died peacefully surrounded by loved ones on September 25, 2024, in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the age of 93. She was born June 1, 1931 to Gordon MacNaughton and Charlotte (Hofferbur) in Portland, Oregon. Her parents divorced when she was 2 years old and she never saw her father again. 

Ginny Lee’s “Life Bible Verses” are: Proverbs 3:5-7 and Isaiah 41:13. 

 Her mother moved to Bellingham, Washington and lived above her grandfather’s bakery during the height of the Great Depression, until her mother was able to afford their own apartment, where they lived through her High School years. She was best friends with her cousin Delores Van Stone (Hindman) who was just a few months older. (Delores died a year before Ginny Lee). Ginny Lee was forced to basically raise herself while her Mother worked hard to make ends meet.

 Ginny would love to talk about how her life took an amazing turn when she was invited to a Christian youth group when she was only 11 years old (she apparently looked like she was in Jr. High School at 11) and where she was introduced to Jesus Christ by evangelist Grant Whipple. She started trusting Jesus as her personal savior and she began praying and reading her Bible daily. She attended a Christian Missionary Alliance church in Bellingham and participated in youth events on her own without anyone taking her unless she went with various friends. For the most part no adults in her life took her to any Christian event.

 She graduated from Bellingham High School in 1949 with a full scholarship to Seattle Pacific College (now University, where later her granddaughter Rachel Mylar would graduate). She studied voice at SPC and became an opera singer and sang at numerous events. 

 She married Frank Demcy Mylar, Sr. in 1950 and they traveled the United States as an Evangelistic team where she would sing in large city auditoriums, many times not having a microphone. One of these events was in Kansas City’s largest auditorium. She recorded several records and her music was on Christian radio stations across the country.

 In 1958 she and her husband purchased an AM/FM Christian radio station in Portland, Oregon so they could begin starting a family. Andrea Lee was born in 1958, Angela Louise in 1959 and then they purchased a radio station in Boise, Idaho in 1962, when Frank Demcy Mylar, Jr. was born. Shortly thereafter they moved to North Hollywood, California where they owned one of the premier Christian radio stations of its day in Orange County. While raising three children Ginny Lee wrote and produced her own radio shows addressing various Christian topics or day to day helpful hints. Many of these stations simply called it, “The Ginny Lee Show.” 

When she lived in North Hollywood you might easily mistake Ginny Lee for a millionaire although they never had much money. She drove a Golden Hawk Studebaker car and wore a mink shawl coat. If you knew her, you would know that it was a gift from someone or she paid almost nothing for such extravagant clothing. Nobody would ever think she was trying to be someone else because it was just who she was. She further became very involved in Christian Women’s Club and spoke at many gatherings over the years in many Western States.

A few years later they moved to Deer Lodge, Montana where they owned KDRG radio station and later the Magic Land Times newspaper in Anaconda, Montana. She did not really like Montana but you would never hear her complain. To remind her of California, she brought a palm tree which we had in our living room for several years. She continued to produce her radio shows and did the accounting for the newspaper. She further continued to sing in productions such as the Sound of Music. She would also travel to other cities in Montana to sing and speak to Christian Women’s groups. However, she never overlooked the importance of her children, whom she also told about Jesus and personally introduced to us at early ages. 

In 1972 her family moved to Omak, Washington, to help start a Baptist Church with her husband. She immediately began holding “Daily Vacation Bible Schools” like the ones she attended as a child. Many children came to know Jesus through these events that she organized and led. She had so many songs, Bible stories, and prizes, that every child was completely enthralled each day of the Bible School. When her children became teenagers, she volunteered to lead the Church youth group and she taught the Jr. High/High School Sunday School class. She further took the youth group, including various of her children, to Christian Youth Rallies and to Church camp in the summer. The Youth Group contained teenagers that did not even go to our church and some of them came to know Jesus through her leadership. One of the girls who came to know Jesus through Ginny Lee, is Tina Schmidt, who wrote her own tribute to Ginny Lee. Beginning when Frank was in fourth grade, she began taking him and his friends to summer camp, where one of Frank’s friends also came to know Jesus. 

Her husband’s radio and business ventures went from riches to poverty on a regular basis but Ginny Lee always seemed to make ends meet. She would send me (Frank) coupons when I was in college for free Raisin Bran cereal among other things. Even the store clerks could not believe it was for simply a free box. I have never known any other person who could find deals on any number of purchases to stretch a dollar beyond reason. When I was preparing to marry Debby, my wife, I remember her giving some advice on how to spend nothing on a wedding and it ended with pay only cash, no loans. That is how she lived. 

Later in life, she and Demcy moved to Utah. She and Demcy (her husband) worked at Ruby’s Inn for about 10 years until they were about 80 years old where they made friends with the family that owns Ruby’s Inn. They did an amazing job of showing the younger workers how to work hard.

Ginny Lee had a 4-way bypass heart surgery in 2016, followed by 17 strokes where she completely lost movement of the entire left side of her body. By God’s Grace she gained back almost full functioning and later said that she knew she could not die and leave us alone with Demcy without her. She knew she needed to stay alive to deal with and care for him dutifully to a fault until he died in 2018. She refused the vaccine when Covid came around and did not seem in the least bit worried about it relying on the truth found in Psalm 139 that God numbers our days. She eventually got Covid, but it only mildly affected her. She broke her hip during Covid and fully rehabbed by walking around the hospital floor several times a day until she could once again care for herself.

Ginny Lee was always a very independent person and hard worker. She prepared her own meals and took care of herself and memorized her numerous medications and could even spell them all when asked what she was taking by medical personnel. 

The biggest tribute of Ginny Lee is that she never stopped looking for ways to serve Jesus and she had an optimism rooted in trusting in Jesus. She would purchase Christian books and send Bible devotions to people all over the United States throughout the years, wanting people to know about Jesus or to grow in their faith of Him. She further would pray daily for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She even had gift orders for me to fulfill before she went to the hospital a month ago, knowing that she would die there. Her praying and giving books and devotionals to friends and family demonstates that nobody is too old to serve the LORD. 

She is survived by her son Frank Demcy Mylar, Jr. (and his wife Debby), Andrea Tillmon, (and her husband, Jesse), Angela Landy (and her Eli), twelve grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

The funeral will be at Evangelical Free Church of Salt Lake City, 6515 Lion Lane, Holladay, Utah 84121 at 4:00 p.m. on 10/27/2024.

A live stream of the service will be abailable through the church's website at the following link: https://www.slcevfree.org/