Mia Bourdeau Love

Mia Bourdeau Love - A Voice for the Ages, a Life for Us All

On December 6, 1975 a baby took her first breath and raised her voice to announce her arrival to the world. On March 23, 2025 she quietly breathed her last. Her voice joined those great and noble souls of history who gave voice to the principles of faith, family and freedom. In between, Mia Bourdeau Love found her voice, refined it, raised it and shared it with the world.

Mia used her voice to inspire large crowds and quietly comfort family and close friends. Her powerful and dynamic singing voice commanded the stage, while her voice of knowledge and wisdom nudged colleagues and leaders toward better solutions. Her Bourdeau “fun gene” brought the voice of passion for life and a love of people. Mia filled rooms with laughter, days with joy and countless moments with happy memories. In her final “Living Wish” Mia prayed that, “…you will hear my words in the whisper of the wind of freedom and feel my presence in the flame of the enduring principles of liberty.” The absence of her physical presence is real and very difficult. However, the words her voice lifted up and the life she lived will amplify the principles she believed far into eternity.

Born Ludmya Bourdeau, to her Haitian immigrant parents, Jean Maxime and Marie Bourdeau, in Brooklyn, New York, Mia was the third of three children. Voices reflecting the joy of laughter, music, Caribbean food and a love of America filled Mia’s formative years after the family moved to Connecticut. Her parents taught, exemplified and deeply ingrained into Mia the principles of compassion, goodness, freedom, hard work and, above all, giving back. Her parents lived these principles in a way that rarely required them to use words, though Mia loved the sound of their voices.

Many came to know Mia as the first Black Republican woman ever elected to the United States Congress. Others knew her as a former city council member, mayor, CNN commentator, University of Hartford graduate, theatrical performer, author, speaker and so much more. These are all things that Mia did but they were not who she was or is. She loved to dance, paint, run, laugh, eat great food, hang with friends, learn and serve others. For Mia, life was about what she was becoming and who she was helping more than it was about what she was doing or achieving.

Family was first, last and always for Mia. Jason’s voice resonated deeply with Mia as they first met while she was attending college and he was a young missionary. Jason’s voice always mattered to Mia, on everything, and continued to be a calming and strengthening power throughout their marriage and her public service. The two began to date after Jason had concluded his missionary service and Mia had moved to Utah after her college graduation from Hartford. Jason and Mia were married on December 18, 1998 in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Mia’s voice has always been the voice of positivity and possibility in their home. Each of the three children (Alessa, Abigale and Peyton) are, by Mia’s design, dreamers and doers! With the power of their mother’s encouraging voice resounding in their hearts and minds, each is a force for good in the world striving to do and become their best. Alessa’s little girl, Mera, was the first grandchild and brought great joy to Mia.

To Mia, faith mattered. Her membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was part of who she was. She and Jason cherished that their marriage was sealed for eternity in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. Mia often raised her voice as a witness of the goodness that follows those who follow the teachings of Jesus. She knew His voice. During difficult days and at significant moments, Mia’s natural instinct was to get on her knees and raise her voice to heaven, asking that she would have the strength and courage to meet the moment. Mia knew that when she would “be still” she could hear the voice of the Spirit. She didn’t pray for success, but only that her voice would be an instrument of His peace and that her words would reflect the light and hope of the Savior, Jesus Christ. Her’s was the voice of a certain woman, a disciple in deed. Mia discovered that she could use her voice to influence issues impacting her local community which ultimately led to her first foray into public service and her winning a seat on the Saratoga Springs city council. In 2009, she was elected mayor of Saratoga Springs, becoming the first African American woman elected mayor in the state of Utah.

Mia had many superpowers, including using her voice to paint pictures of possibilities. Her voice could create a vision that sight and mind alone could not see. People in groups large and small not only heard, but felt her words in ways that lifted and transformed. The nation witnessed this firsthand in her speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention when she first spoke of “The America I know”. Winning a seat in Congress in 2014, Mia took her voice to Congress and raised it for those she represented in Utah, for the principles she believed in, for the country she loved and for those who had no voice at all. After losing reelection for Congress in 2018 and wanting to prioritize her family, she worked for CNN as a political commentator. Mia continued to use her voice to promote better conversations on issues of local and national importance.

She also used her voice to create and nurture relationships outside the public sphere. The voice of friendship and the voices of friends mattered to Mia. She knew that friendships required time, attention and a shared vulnerability. She had “slumber parties” with friends, attended events that were important to them and listened as they shared their own fears and struggles. She wrote of having “courageous vulnerability,” and of having people in her life that would “keep it real” for her. She especially loved who she called “her people”, who would tell her when she had spinach in her teeth, or was about to make a fashion faux pas and for whom she could do the same. More importantly, she honored her friendships by sharing her fears, vulnerabilities and worries as her earthly life was coming to a close. No words were needed with such friends simply being together was always enough and more.

Mia possessed unusual authenticity, uncommon vulnerability and an uncanny connectivity to people. Mia understood what it was like to wonder if you belonged, to question if you mattered and to worry about whether or not you were making a difference. She faced her own doubts - and a little “imposter syndrome”. Mia also faced her share of actual doubters and detractors from the world of politics and media. Mia knew the sting of defeat, the pain of prejudice and the frustration of discovering the deceit of false friends. Mia rose above it all on the wings of faith, principled-belief and her own steely determination to claim her authentic self. Because Mia did the hard work and heavy lifting of first finding and then raising her voice - she was able to invite and inspire others to walk the path with her to find their own. There is an army of public servants and private leaders today who began their journey to the sound of Mia’s voice and the sight of her remarkable example and achievements.

While the world says that Mia’s untimely passing has silenced a promising voice - those who know Mia, know better. She isn’t finished with us yet. We will be reminded of her voice by listening to her inspiring speeches and the audio of her insightful memoir. She fought to record her book after her devastating cancer diagnosis and first craniotomy, so that her family and loved ones would always remember the sound of her voice. In the hours before her passing, while she was too weak to speak, Mia’s family gathered around her bed at home, listening to her voice as she read her book, “Qualified.” Mia was teaching them again, in her own words and voice. As was often the case in life, Mia got the last word.

The heavens simply cannot contain the voice of this daughter, wife, mother, disciple, sister, friend, servant and voice for good. Mia’s work has not ended, it has just begun and will resound and reverberate in thankful hearts in the days and decades ahead. Those who are wise will listen for her words in the winds of freedom, hear her loving hope from heaven above and recognize Mia’s call to each of us in the sound of every child who looks at the seemingly impossible and says, “I can do that!” Mia’s voice will continue to rise, now with angelic wings and heavenly tones, inviting us all to live up to the principles that will inspire us to live, as she did, in a way that proclaims the true content of our character.

Mia is survived by her husband, Jason, daughters Alessa (Lincoln Archibald) and Abigale, son Peyton, parents Jean Maxime and Marie Bourdeau, siblings Jean Mark, Cynthia, granddaughter Mera Archibald and a large number of friends and family who love her forever.

In lieu of flowers the Love family encourages a donation to either, The Robert Preston Tisch Brain Tumor center at Duke University Hospital: https://tischbraintumorcenter.duke.edu/  or the Huntsman Cancer Institute: https://give.huntsmancancer.org/page/79546/donate/1

On Sunday, April 6, Mia will lie in state from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Utah State Capitol Rotunda. The public is invited to attend.

On Monday, April 7, at 10 a.m., Mia’s memorial services will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint Institute of Religion on the University of Utah campus, 1780 S. Campus Dr., in Salt Lake City. The public is invited to attend.

Mia’s services will be under the direction of Memorial Mortuaries and Cemeteries in Salt Lake City, Utah.