When Marilyn Beddor (then Marilyn Branchaud) captured the heart of the man who would become her husband of 50 years, he professed his affection for her on a billboard overlooking downtown Minneapolis.
"I love Mike," read the message signed by "Frankie," aka Frank Beddor Jr., who had written his very public declaration in secret code, using the pet name he'd given his then-girlfriend.
Befitting the loving and beloved person she was, Marilyn Beddor died on Feb. 14, Valentine's Day, at age 86.
Beddor grew up in Minneapolis and developed a reputation for her elegant style and taste back when she was in high school at the Academy of Holy Angels. As dances approached, all the girls wanted to know: What would Marilyn be wearing?
After graduating from what was then the College of St. Catherine, Beddor worked in fashion advertising at Dayton's downtown Minneapolis department store, where she organized showrooms and window displays.
Beddor first met her future husband when she was 8 years old (she was a friend of his younger sister). When the two were reintroduced a decade later, she was initially skeptical of the bachelor with a reputation for larger-than-life antics — he'd once water-skied on the Mississippi River dressed as Paul Bunyan.
But Frank Jr.'s efforts (which also included having himself wrapped in a box with a big red bow and delivered to Beddor's doorstep as a Valentine's Day gift) soon won her over.
The couple raised four children in Chanhassen and the family lived what son Frank Beddor III referred to as "the Beddor active lifestyle," which involved skiing, car racing and sky diving — even though the latter risked mussing Mom's always-perfect hair.
