Obituaries for February 22, 2000MARION F. MERRILL

Marion Frances Merrill, 78, died Jan. 17, 2000, in Mesa, Ariz.

She was born Feb. 23, 1921, in Decker, Ind.

Ms. Merrill came to Alaska in the mid-50s from Wyoming with her husband, Robert L. Merrill. The family homesteaded on Hatcher Pass Road north of Willow. In 1966, they moved into Anchorage.

Ms. Merrill, a nursing college graduate, worked for the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services in accounting.

Her family recalled: Marion was a compulsive reader, brilliant English historian and often stated that in her love for books she had traveled all over the world, had met the most interesting people and lived through them.

(She was an) Alaska pioneer who helped build two log homes with conveniences and later became an Arizona snowbird.

(She and her husband) were married 36 years before she declared her independence after all her children were raised.

She gave so much of herself to the hearts of others, especially her family, and will be so greatly missed. (She) taught us joy, truth, and love. Mother: A woman of peace, a woman of thought, a woman of books, she wont be forgotten.

The family added that they love her and are thankful to her and to God for making possible their experience with her.

They wrote that she is now with God.

She was preceded in death by her former husband, Robert Merrill, in 1993.

She is survived by her children, Steven Merrill, of California, Garth Merrill and family, of Nevada, Mark Merrill, of Willow, Robin Merrill and family, of Arizona, and Francie Merrill, of Anchorage; grandchildren, Nicholas, Lisette, Angelica, Llewellyn, Dharma, Maleia, Macie, Teressa and Michael; 11 great-grandchildren; brothers, Bruce Lane and family of Georgia and Daniel Lane and family, of Indiana; cousin, Betty McCormick, of Indiana, and the familys 96-year-old matriarch, Gladys Ready Burkhard, of Decker, Ind.

Her family asked that memorial gifts be sent to the American Lung Association.