An 80-year-old Twin Cities woman was found unresponsive in a northern Minnesota lake and died, officials said Thursday.
First responders were alerted shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday by a 911 call about the woman being in distress in Lake Vermilion near Blueberry Island, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Sheriff’s Office identified the woman as Marit Smaby-Nowlin, 80, who lived in St. Paul with husband Forrest Nowlin. She is the mother of four daughters: movie actor and writer Kate Nowlin; Margaret Nowlin, who was a basketball star at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul and the University of Notre Dame; and Jessica Nowlin and Megan Nowlin.
Smaby-Nowlin is the sister of Jan Smaby, the original co-host of KTCA’s “Almanac” from 1984 to 1994, and the daughter of former state legislator Alpha Smaby, who died in 1991.
The responders arrived to find family members attempting to revive Smaby-Nowlin, the Sheriff’s Office said. Authorities have yet to release an official cause of death.
The first responders brought her back to land before emergency medical personnel took her to Cook Hospital, but she soon died, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Kate Nowlin said Thursday that her mother, a 1963 graduate of Minneapolis Marshall High School, was a positive force in her community. Among her contributions was being active in church leadership as a 50-year member of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Minneapolis.