Marianne Layton Marlor

From College of Fine Arts and Communications

Marianne Layton Marlor graduated in 1981 with a degree in Music. In 2008, one of her remembrances of her time studying at BYU was printed in BYU Magazine

My freshman year, I was crowned Miss Felt Hall and became a candidate for the Miss Heritage Halls contest. I was also a busy piano major trying to bake a simple cake. Always in a hurry, I put the beaters into the mixer not realizing it was already on! Suddenly and to my great horror, I realized that my right index finger was caught in the beaters. Panicked, I picked up the mixer, headed out into the hall, and cried for help.

At Utah Valley Hospital they dismantled the mixer bolt by bolt to free my finger from the twisted steel. They said I was lucky not to lose my finger, stitched me up, gave me pain meds, and returned me to my apartment. There was just one problem: I still had the talent portion of the contest ahead. I was determined to not let my injury stop me from playing. I changed the fingering so that I wouldn’t have to use my bandaged index finger.

For the talent competition I sang a silly song to explain the accident to the judges. I ended by playing my original piece, Brahms’ Rhapsody in G Minor, with my bandaged finger sticking straight up. To my surprise, I won the talent portion of the contest!

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