Marilyn Estelle Matasovic, formerly of Mokena, Ill., died in Las Vegas, May 25, 2004, following a six month battle with cancer. Born in Chicago, Jan. 7, 1946, Marilyn was the daughter of John Louis and Stella Butkauskas Matasovic, and lived in Las Vegas since 1991. She was a rancher and professional gambler. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1967, with a degree in business and worked in her family's welding equipment manufacturing business, OXO Equipment Co., New Lenox, Ill., until it was sold in 1991. She also managed the family ranches located near Ridgway, Colo., and owned an advertising specialities business called "Hereford Works" that sold products related to Hereford cattle. At the age of nine, she won a Hereford steer for being the top judge in a livestock judging contest in Wisconsin and later established a national reputation for judging and showing purebred Hereford cattle. In the early 70's, she spent two weeks traveling the state of Montana looking for a new herd sire for OXO Ranches, eventually picking CH Domino 914, who became a Register of Merit Super Sire. Marilyn was coeditor of the first newsletter published by the American Hereford Auxiliary in 1968 called "The Feedbox - Food for Thought" and chaired several auxiliary events, including the "Cowcutta", a gambling fund raiser in 1992 in which people bid on their favorites in video cattle races. She served as president of the American Hereford Auxiliary in 1993, and oversaw its transition to a new entity, American Hereford Women, in 1994. In 1996, when the World Hereford Conference was held in Ft. Collins, Colo., Marilyn produced a video for foreign visitors telling about American Hereford herds and showing sights which accompanied John Wayne's soliloquy, "America--Why Do I Love Her?" A longtime sponsor of junior activities, she was an active, founding member of the Illinois Junior Hereford Association and was instrumental in planning it's 40th reunion in 1999. In 2003, following her mother's death, Marilyn initiated the OXO World Traveler Scholarship so that a different person could participate in the World Hereford Conference every four years. The first winner, Kristi Bishop of Basehor, Kan., recently returned from her trip to Australia. Marilyn loved to travel and visited all 50 states and more than 50 countries around the world. She also loved to gamble, was an excellent cook, gemologist and computer specialist. She especially enjoyed designing Internet web sites. She was listed in Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who of Finance and Industry, the Social Register of Las Vegas, and was named Outstanding Hereford Woman by the American Hereford Women in 1999. She was a member of the Illinois Farm Bureau, Colorado Cattlemen's Association, R-CALF, American Hereford Association, Colorado, and Illinois Hereford Auxiliaries, American Agri-Women and Illinois Agri-Women. She was preceded in death by her parents and a niece, Mary Elizabeth Swiercinsky. Survivors are her sister, Linda Matasovic Swiercinsky; and nephew, John James Swiercinsky (wife, Janelle), all of Mokena, Ill. Donations in her memory may be made to your local hospice, Helping Hands of Henderson, the American Hereford Youth Foundation in Kansas City, Mo. (earmarked for the OXO World Traveler Scholarship) or the American Agri-Women Resource Center. She will be cremated and her ashes scattered over the mountains of OXO Ranches in southwestern Colorado. Services will be held later in Illinois.

Published by Las Vegas Review-Journal on May 28, 2004.