Marilyn Joan Mays was born July 2, 1929 in Lake City. She was the oldest of eight sisters. You might be thinking, “No boys?” Yes, Marilyn had a brother. He was two years younger than she. Unfortunately, he had a kidney disease that took his life when he was two years old. There was another brother born years later but he was an undeveloped preemie. However, all eight of the girls were healthy for many years. Marilyn died Nov. 2 from symptoms of a blood disease.
When Marilyn was 19, she and her fiancé’ were in a car accident on the 4th of July. Dale was killed but Marilyn only had a few cuts and a lot of trauma that lasted for months. A year later her grandmother from Escondido, Calif. was visiting her family, she offered to take her back with her. Marilyn’s heart was set on living in San Diego after hearing about that beautiful city so often over the years. She had an aunt and uncle who lived there. She contacted them and they were thrilled to have more family near them, so she saw her opportunity to start a new life. She stayed with that aunt and uncle until she met a young woman whose sister had just moved from home. She moved to live with that family. Two years later her sister, Georgia, arrived in San Diego and they moved together.
When Marilyn joined a church in San Diego, she also joined their small choir. Georgia joined the choir when she arrived. For years that choir had been singing carols early on Christmas morning, walking through the halls of the awesome Del Coronado Hotel, so they joined them. What an awesome experience. The following summer a friend of Marilyn’s invited them to join her huge choir in the First Presbyterian Church in downtown San Diego.
Over the years, due to their mother’s death, all the sisters moved with them. Because two sisters were 9 and 11 Marilyn becamee their stand-in mother. Dating went out the door and she dedicated herself to their welfare. She also filled her life with her job as bookkeeper in a carpet store. When that store closed, she worked as a bookkeeper in an exclusive, large boutique. When the shop was robbed two times, she had always been the first employee to be at work. They threatened her if she did not open the safe, but she had never been taught. They had a gun.
When the last sister was married or moved out, her friend from choir needed a roommate and Marilyn gladly moved with her. When Cora died in 1992 of Parkinson’s Disease, Georgia and her husband, Al, asked her to move with them, getting ready to move back to Iowa. She agreed. Iowa has been her home again for 29 years.
Survivors are two sisters, Georgia Ridgeway, Mt. Vernon and Karen Klinger, Sacramento, Calif.; 10 nieces and seven nephews.
Preceding her in death are her mother and father; five sisters, two brothers, one niece and one nephew.
A celebration of Life is being held Friday, Nov. 18 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Antioch Church.