Marian Johnson

Marian Margarita Johnson (Marlore Anwandter) June 10, 1934 – June 10, 2026

Marian Johnson ( Marlore Anwandter) was born in Santiago, Chile, on June 10, 1934, and enjoyed life to the fullest each and every day of her 92 years.

Her vivid imagination and joy for life made everything an adventure, and her sister, Ilonka, became her sometimes-unwilling partner. Driven by her creativity and playful spirit, their childhood games became legendary. As children, they would “assault” the local bus in Santo Domingo. Marlore, dressed as a cowboy, would jump off her galloping horse onto the moving bus, “shoot” all the passengers, and then escape by leaping back onto her horse, which Ilonka had kept running alongside. Her dentist father was appalled to discover that the retainers he had put on her teeth were being used to strap pretend reins to her mouth so she could “be a horse.” She spent several months of her childhood pretending to be Beethoven—which, of course, meant that she was deaf and didn’t heed anything anyone said to her. Winter was for snow skiing in the Andes with friends, an activity that in those days required sidestepping up the hill on skis since there were no lifts. Music was always an integral part of her life; she played the piano, guitar, and accordion, and with Ilonka, would often perform for friends.

In her late teens, she, Ilonka, and Muchy (their mother) traveled through Europe for almost a year, visiting every museum possible. Marlore loved to learn about everything and could have pursued any career (she loved medicine). She ultimately became a journalist and loved being an “on-the-street” reporter. She loved interviewing people, was not intimidated by famous subjects, and had the gift of putting herself in other’s shoes. At 21, when asked, she stepped up and became the youngest editor of the major magazine Eva, although she always missed her “real journalist” days. Her empathy was one of her greatest gifts; she truly understood other people’s perspectives. Another thing she was very proud of was that she co-founded the first Girl Scouts club in Chile.

She married Bryan, the love of her life, in 1959, and another grand adventure began. They had three children. While still in Chile, she opened a small music school and began writing songs to teach musical concepts, later writing songs as gifts for her friends and family. Along with her sister and both sets of children, Marlore recorded two children’s albums with Odeon Chile: Mini Monos Musicales and Más Mini Monos Musicales. Through Chile’s political turmoil of the early 1970s, she continued living life as normally as possible, organizing TV programs and performances while still finding ways to provide food and necessities for her family in a time of scarcity. In 1972, her song “El Chincol” was a favored finalist in the Festival de Viña, a highly unusual honor for a children’s song. In 1973, the couple made the difficult decision to leave Chile for new opportunities and moved to Colombia, where they lived for 11 months. She fell in love with the country's natural beauty which inspired many, many more songs.

In 1974, she moved to Missouri with her three non-English-speaking children and a husband who was often away for weeks at a time for work travel, but she never complained. She was fluent in four languages, yet always quipped about her “Mickey Mouse English.” She befriended neighbors, supported Bryan’s career, and pursued her own interests in whatever spare time she could find. She wrote children’s stories and had several books published. She continued to write songs and recorded them at the kitchen table, with her kids as her musicians and a microphone hanging from the center lamp. Demo cassettes were mailed to the record company Codiscos for approvalI and in 1974, the first Canticuentos LP album was recorded. Recording sessions were done in Medellín, Colombia. During the era of Pablo Escobar, Marlore would travel there with a choir of children to record Canticuentos Volumes 1 through 6. Every recording was squeezed into a single week, carved out of what was supposed to be summer family vacation time in Chile. Two later albums were recorded in Chile, bringing back the original choir of her kids and “the cousins,” plus all four of Marlore’s grandchildren. Although recording albums became logistically impossible as her children became adults, she never stopped writing songs, many of which have been recorded by other artists.

When Bryan’s work took them to Mexico City for several years, Marlore once again dived into this new adventure with joy. She relished the archaeological treasures and continued making friends. After three years, they returned to Missouri, only to be sent to multicultural Singapore, where she immersed herself in the local ceramics world and playfully claimed to have found her “Chinese side”—pointing to her disappearing eyes when she smiled, she would say, “We Chinese.” She again enjoyed being a journalist, volunteering and writing for the Singapore American newspaper. After returning to the U.S. for a short time, back to Mexico they went for several years, and Marlore spent much of her time teaching English to the factory workers at Bryan’s refrigeration plant and making many new friends.

Because she lived so far away from where her music was most popular, Marlore was largely unaware of the massive success of her songs. It wasn't until 2014, when she was invited to Colombia and awarded a double-platinum album for Canticuentos, that it began to sink in. In 2023, she received a Diamond album. The following year, 10 of her songs from the original Canticuentos LP were re-recorded by popular Colombian artists, a project that went on to win the Latin Grammy for Best Children’s Album in 2025. Although the award was given to the producers of the project, Marlore was invited on stage to receive the award, which was dedicated to her with the words, “This prize is yours.”

Marlore was preceded in death by her husband, Bryan; her parents, Guillermo Anwandter and Muchy Hempel; and her nephew, Alfredo Kupfer.

Marlore leaves behind her sister, Ilonka Anwandter (in Chile); her three children, Christine (Bruce) Litzsinger, Michael Johnson, and Carol (Jay) Maddick; four grandchildren, Bryan and Andrea Litzsinger, Brandon (Carmen) Maddick, and Isabel (Ryan) Merritt; three great-grandchildren, Tripp and Spencer Maddick, and Myla Merritt; three nephews, Alejandro (Fernanda) Kupfer, Carlos Andres (Sandra) Kupfer, and Benjamin (Krasna) Kupfer; and many close friends around the world—some of whom she never met in person—as well as millions of Latin children and adults who still sing her songs today. She would love nothing more than to be remembered as a genuine person who did her very best to share her positive outlook and joy for life in everything she did.

There will be a celebration of her life on Thursday, July 23rd at 5:30 at the Lathrop Methodist Church. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to Doctors Without Borders or St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

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