MARILYN ALLEN

Marilyn Woods Allen died in Neenah on November 28, 2020. She was born Marilyn Barnes Woods in Kansas City, Missouri on August 26, 1942, and grew up in Kansas City, St. Louis, Little Rock, and Jacksonville, Illinois. She was a sophomore at Central High in Little Rock when President Eisenhower sent in a thousand troops from the 101st airborne division and federalized the Arkansas national guard to try to contain violence while the school was desegregated. She was profoundly moved by the courage of the nine Black students and horrified by the rage and hatred of the racist mobs. Her parents and her Episcopal faith had valued the Golden Rule, but her experience at Central High left her with a lifelong determination to be kind. That became the core of her being and may explain why so many people who knew her loved her. 

Marilyn earned her diploma from Passavant Hospital School of Nursing in Jacksonville and her  BSN from University of California San Francisco. She became a pediatric nurse, saved as much of her salary as she could, used the money to travel alone for several months in Europe and North Africa, and then came back to San Francisco. She met her husband, Herb Allen, in 1970, when she was working in the children's ICU at UCSF and he was a pediatric intern. They married on December 11, 1971, at the Swedenborgian Church of San Francisco and in 1978 moved to Neenah, where she raised their two children, Sarah snd Jon. She was a member of the PEO Sisterhood and the League of Women Voters and served on the boards of the Neenah Public Library and the VNA. She delivered Meals on Wheels and volunteered for several years at Double Portions at St Thomas Church.

Marilyn was a talented seamstress and gardener and a generous cook and baker unless chocolate was involved. She often left for her children and husband most of the cookies and candy she produced; she was kind but she had her limits. She loved her friends, her family,  flowers, reading, learning, walking outdoors, and drinking good coffee. She was interested in almost everything; before there was the internet she was her kids' go-to person to call for the title of a Ray Bradbury short story, or the name of the tiny white flower that blooms in March, or a good biscuit recipe. She almost always knew the answer. She was usually so optimistic that she made fun of herself and called it “playing the glad game.” Her children and husband are left wondering how they were so lucky to have had her in their lives.

Fabry disease was found around 2000 to run in Marilyn's father's family. It killed him when he was 52, and she inherited the Fabry mutation. The disease almost certainly contributed to the dementia that began to show itself in 2009 and eventually caused her death.

Marilyn leaves her husband Herb, her daughter Sarah Allen (Mark Powell), her son Jon Allen (Sara Blanco), her brothers Jim Woods (Velma) and John Woods (Eydee Schultz), and four granddaughters—Minna, Althea, Claudine, and Netta Powell.

Marilyn's husband and children are very grateful to the staff for the beyond excellent care she received at Valley VNA, where she lived for her last 27 months. 

There will be a gathering of friends and family when vaccines make COVID-19 less dangerous. Her body will be cremated and her husband will scatter her ashes in some places she loved—Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park and a local garden whose identity must remain secret. 

Please consider a donation in Marilyn's memory to the Fabry Support and Information Group.