Marilyn Davis

Oct. 15, 1926 - May 19, 2022

Marilyn Love Davis passed away on May 19, 2022 at the age of 95, quietly and with family members at her side. Marilyn was born on October 15, 1926 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She attended the University of Colorado and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a math major. In her freshman year, she met A. John Davis III (Johnny) whom she married the day after graduation. They raised two sons together in Littleton, Colorado. Marilyn was pragmatic, direct, and often said that “every young woman needs a good education and her own set of tools!” She was the first homemaker in her suburban neighborhood to go back to work, earning a Masters of Education and teaching elementary school for twenty years. After retiring together in 1984, Marilyn and Johnny purchased a historic house on Puget Sound in Home, Washington which they restored together over several years. Marilyn was the epitome of what Johnny called “a good sport”, his highest praise for a woman. She rode horses, fished, hunted, and backpacked. Johnny conceded that Marilyn could out fish him and was the better shot when hunting. Every year until their late seventies, Marilyn and Johnny drove to Colorado to a remote one-room log cabin—without electricity or running water—that the family had built by hand in the late 1960s. There they spent a month, the end of which coincided with an early deer hunting season. Johnny acted as the hunting guide and Marilyn took the almost-always clean shot to bring down a deer. They would then butcher it themselves, put it on dry ice, and drive back to Washington with their winter’s venison. Marilyn applied her math talent through the creation of a multitude of beautiful and complicated sweaters and hand-stitched quilts that she made over the years. She was an avid gardener, voracious reader, and was well-versed on a wide range of topics. She was competitive, independent, hard-working, an outspoken conversationalist, and had close friends wherever she lived. She liked watching football and successfully made the complicated transition from being a Broncos buff to a Seahawks fan. She was an excellent pianist and played throughout her lifetime including duets with a 102-year-old-friend in recent years. Johnny died in 2008 and seven years later Marilyn moved to Gig Harbor to be closer to friends. A year later, after breaking her hip, she moved to Ida Culver House in Seattle to be closer to her two sons and their families. At Ida Culver, Marilyn was surprised to meet and fall in love with John Allen whose apartment was right down the hall. She and John were inseparable for most of the next five years, weathering the long lockdown of the pandemic contentedly together. Marilyn will be remembered for her outgoing personality, lively and sometimes-barbed humor, energy, intelligence . . . and for her pies. Her full head of dark brown hair, despite the skepticism of many, really was not dyed. The many months of lockdown without access to a hairdresser proved that once and for all! Marilyn was preceded in death by her brother, Bill. She is survived by her two sons and their wives (John and Susan, Charlie and Nancy), four grandchildren, three great granddaughters, her sister-in-law Elsa, and three nieces, three nephews, and their children with whom she has remained close. A memorial will be held at a yet-to-be-determined date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho.