Former Marysville Globe publisher, state lawmaker dead at 81

Published 4:43 pm Monday, February 9, 2009

MARYSVILLE – Sim Wilson, who was the publisher for the Marysville Globe and Arlington Times for more than 30 years and served in the state House of Representatives for 20 years, died Sunday. He was 81.

Wilson had surgery at Harrison Memorial Hospital in Bremerton for kidney cancer late last month, his wife Karen Wilson said.

He was expected to fully recover but collapsed Sunday and could not be revived, she said.

Wilson was raised on Whidbey Island and moved with his family to Marysville when his father bought the Globe, Karen Wilson said.

Wilson bought the paper from his parents in the early 1960s and ran it until he sold it in the early 1990s she said.

Wilson was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1972 and served until 1992.

He married Betty Rust in 1959 and they raised two children at the family home on Priest Point near Marysville until divorcing , according to Karen Wilson.

Sim Wilson met Karen when she was serving in the Legislature as a state representative. The two Republican legislators were married in 1993 and moved to Bainbridge Island. In 2006, they built a new home in Kingston where they lived until he died.

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439, sheets@heraldnet.com.