Longtime Las Vegan, philanthropist dies at 81

Jayn Saltzman Marshall was known in Southern Nevada social circles as an artist dedicated to family and philanthropic causes around the world.

According to son Todd Marshall, she saw the good in everyone.

“My mom was very fair minded,” he said. “Very grounded in who she was and really believed in fairness and equality in all people. The (Anti-Defamation League) was certainly one of the organizations that was most important to her.”

Longtime Las Vegas resident Jayn Marshall died Wednesday at the age of 81 after a long fight with cancer.

Her passing was announced Thursday during the Nevada Gaming Commission hearing in Carson City. Her husband, Art Marshall, was a commissioner from 1997 until last year.

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Monday at Congregation Ner Tamid, 55 N. Valle Verde Drive, Henderson.

Commission Chairman Peter Bernhard, who made the announcement, said she was a committed Las Vegan in her charity work.

“She was committed to our community with all her charity activities,” Bernhard said. “Both Art and Jayn have been such strong, active supporters of the community in so many ways for decades. Just tremendous people.”

Jayn Marshall’s various philanthropic causes included the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federation of Las Vegas and the American Israel Public affairs Committee.

She was an original member of the local chapter of the Lions of Judah.

She was recognized with many awards through the years for her and her husband’s work including recognition from the United Jewish Community/ Jewish Federation of Las Vegas. The couple were awarded the Anti-Defamation League’s Americanism Award in October.

Jayn Marshall was born in Cleveland on May 6, 1929, the youngest of three daughters of Sara and Abe Saltzman. Her family moved to Las Vegas in 1945 and she graduated from Las Vegas High School three years later.

Jayn and Art Marshall met in Cleveland in 1953. Art Marshall proposed three days later and the couple married six weeks later.

Rabbi Sanford Akselrad of Congregation Ner Tamid said Jayn and Art Marshall “were truly soulmates,” with family being her focus.

“They were always a team and united as a family,” Akselrad said. “As philanthropists, she was there for him, supporting his career and his professional endeavors 100 percent.”

The couple moved to Las Vegas in 1959 where the couple would live for the next five decades.

She was active behind the scenes at the Marshall-Rousso women’s clothing stores, which was owned by her husband and brother-in-law, Herb Rousso.

The partnership acquired the first store in 1959 on Las Vegas Boulevard from Jayn’s parents, Todd Marshall said.

She used her passion for art, having studied professional arts in college, to help bring flair to the stores.

“She was active in the way the stores looked and in the overall flavor and ambiance of the stores,” Todd Marshall said. “She wasn’t active day-to-day but she did use her aesthetic creativity to really create the environment of the stores.”

Today, Marshall-Rousso stores are in Bally’s, Excalibur, Harrah’s Las Vegas, MGM Grand, the Sahara, The Venetian and McCarran International as well as stores in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Real estate developer Mark Fine, who knew Jayn Marshall for 35 years, said art was a big part of her life.

“She was an artist,” Fine said. “She was creative. She was open-minded about life and experiencing all the things that life had to offer. I have a lot of admiration for her, because she followed her own passions and followed her own dreams and, at the same time, raised an amazing family and was a wonderful wife.”

Akselrad said she loved to work with acrylics, watercolors and oils in her art.

“She was a woman who loved color and had a background as an interior designer,” Akselrad said. “When they would move from home to home she’d have a lot of fun decorating and making things.”

Jayn Marshall is survived by her husband Art Marshall, son Todd Marshall and daughter Cari Marshall. She is also survived by sister Malvene Rowe, three granddaughters, Jessica Marshall, Alexis Marshall and Dana Marshall-Bernstein as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by sister Estelle Rousso in 2006.

The family is asking that donations be made in Jayn Marshall’s memory to Nathan Adelson Hospice.

Carole Fisher, president and chief executive officer of Nathan Adelson Hospice, came to know Jayn and Art Marshall about 30 years ago through her own parents’ friendship with the couple.

Despite their influence within the community, the Marshalls always have been “a very low-key couple,” Fisher said, and Jayn Marshall was “just an incredible woman. She was very loving, very grounded, very genuine. She was just authentic.”

The family enlisted the hospice’s services about six weeks ago, Fisher said. “It was a privilege and an honor to help them through this process.”