C. Marianne Fisher

Cleta Marianne Johnson Fisher was a musician and is known for her hymn “As I Search the Holy Scriptures” (#277), which was included in the 1985 Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Marianne was the first blind member of the Tabernacle Choir and the Promised Valley Playhouse staged a musical by Michael McLean—“Unspoken Song”—that had a segment about her. She sang with the choir for 17 years until 1993.

She was born in 1932 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Blind since birth, she attended the School for the Blind in Ogden, Utah, and graduated from Ogden High School. She won a scholarship to the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts. She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Brigham Young University, two master’s degrees from the University of Utah (in music and speech pathology/audiology). She owned a medical secretarial service for many years.

She helped the Church develop curriculum for the visually impaired and loved serving in the Church. In the text of her obituary she said, “I have served as ward and temple organist both in Salt Lake and Jordan River temples, teaching the children, primary music leader, teaching gospel doctrine, Sunday School teacher, serving in the Relief Society Presidency, ward choir conductor, and filling innumerable singing and speaking assignments.”[1]

She passed away in March 2018.