Mark Edward Jensen

Mark Edward Jensen returned to his Heavenly Family on Wednesday, November 6, 2024. He leaves his wife, J.J. Walker and children, Missy & David Raleigh, Tom Jensen, Matt Jensen, Lucas Jensen, Claire Walker, Rachel Walker and Maggie Walker with the responsibility of never letting anyone forget his awesome taste in music or that he had been college radio and club DJ in his earlier years. 

His parents, Robert and Elizabeth (Syphus) greeted Mark as he entered this world on January 15, 1962 in Salt Lake City Utah at 1:12 am. The time of his birth foreshadowed his forever night owl tendencies, whether it was taking the kids for ice cream at midnight, fixing his garage door opener at 2am or trying out his new speakers at 3 am, it was never too late to do something. 

The 4th of 10 children, Alan (JoNell), Betty Ann Armstrong (Dave), Carol Severinsen (Kevin), Jim, Dave (Cindy), Joe (Michelle), Jean Ellsworth (Jeff), John (Alisha) and Barbara Carter (Ray) he made himself known and not to be forgotten. Mark grew up in the Salt Lake City area graduating from Skyline High School. He attended the University of Utah and Brigham Young University-Hawaii at which time he unknowingly ran in the same circles with a girl who over 30 years later would become his sister in law (J.J.’s sister-Kari). 

After high school, Mark served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Honduras Tegucigalpa mission where he learned to speak Spanish. He spent the time in Honduras and Belize sharing his undoubted love for Jesus Christ. The people of the area and their hearts left a forever impression in his heart. 

Mark’s interests led him down different career paths, and to different locations such as Salt Lake and Pittsburgh before he found his calling in real estate and eventually settled in St. George. He worked in real estate for over 30 years, meeting so many people who all became his new best friends. 

Mark married Lynette Madsen which blessed him with two children, Missy and Tom. They divorced and later Mark married Cristina Mejia which brought two more blessings, Matt and Lucas. He would be forever grateful for those relationships that brought him four children who were the highlight of his life. 

On October 16, 2018 Mark received a message on an online dating site in response to a picture of him in San Francisco which said, “Nice, photo! I love San Francisco!” Little did he know those were the last words J.J. Walker vowed to ever send on a dating site. He immediately responded and those words were the beginning of an incredible love. A little less than a year later, Mark asked J.J. to marry him and on December 28, 2019, they married in St. George, Utah. Together they created the most fabulous blended family by adding Claire, Rachel and Maggie to the mix and giving Rachel her dream of having brothers. For the next 1,775 days not one day went by when Mark didn’t tell J.J. how much he loved her. 

While doing his favorite things such as going to concerts, mountain biking, being a coach for the Dixie High School mountain bike team, being a leader in the young men’s organization at church, skiing, going to amusement parks, hanging out at the beach or even just walking down the street, Mark never met a stranger. He loved talking to everyone and making people laugh. He wanted to share all the things he loved with everyone else, except his Diet Mountain Dew. 

Mark was passionate about a lot of things, but nothing including Diet Mountain Dew, surpassed his passion for his kids, his wife, his family and his love for the Savior. He was always cheering the kids on with his crazy hoarse “Woo hoos” and enthusiastic cheers. He let them know that he thought they were amazing and brilliant, and so strong and so talented at whatever they did. Singing, drawing, art, gymnastics, running, tennis, school work. They were always the best. He would do his laugh/cry thing when talking about his parents and siblings and loved to share stories of them. He was always ready to discuss gospel topics and always anxious to explore more. He would often get choked up when he had discussions about spiritual topics or experiences.

Mark wanted to live forever, but he knew when he passed on that it would be ok. He knew that in fact it would be more than ok, it was going to be amazing. Mark will surely be missed. But his smile, his laugh, his sometimes inappropriateness, his friendliness, his goofiness, his kindness, and his love will live forever in our hearts.