Marilyn Kay Meyer

Obituary for Marilyn Meyer

Marilyn Kay Meyer passed very quickly but peacefully on May 13th, just 45 days after her husband of 76 years, James Meyer, passed. She was always a procrastinator, but apparently not in death.

Marilyn was born on June 29th, 1931, to Kenneth and Kay Leach in Quincy, Illinois. She attended Quincy High School. A little-known fact is that she was a trainee with the Civil Air Patrol in high school. Just imagine her flying a plane!

After graduating, she briefly attended Gem City Business College. She mastered the now lost art of shorthand but never could grasp the principals of accounting. She balanced her checkbook and kept her business records, but no one could ever understand how she did it!

She married James on February 11,1950, and they have three children.

In 1961, they moved to their present location in New Mexico to teach the Baha’i Faith. Marilyn served as the secretary for the National Baha’i Council for many years.

In New Mexico, she was an entrepreneur, having developed three home businesses: Space Gardens, Meyer’s Recycled Building Materials and Meyer’s Steel.

Marilyn was a devoted animal lover and adopted many that were discarded on the side of the highway. She also loved her flowers both inside and outside. She enjoyed sitting on the deck drinking coffee and watching the birds, especially hummingbirds, and looking at both the Sangre del Cristo mountains and the spectacular sunsets over the Jemez mountains.

Marilyn had a joke for everything and kept us laughing. When she saw her future husband sitting very stoically in a coffee shop in Quincy, she told a friend that she was going to marry that guy and make him laugh for the rest of their lives. And she did.

She was an avid reader and a very smart person and was always asking why. She never lost her thirst for knowledge. And she had a great memory except for directions. That’s why her call name and current email address is “NM lost lady.”

Marilyn collected roosters, many, many roosters! If you attend the celebration for her, you get to take home a rooster, if you so desire!

Mom will be missed by all. She was a great wife, mother, grandmother and friend. And she was a great cook up until the end!

She is survived by her daughters, Jean and husband Craig Olsen, Rebecca (Becky) Meyer, son James (Barney) Meyer and wife Kelly, grandson Chad Olsen and wife Elvira, and granddaughter Megan Olsen.

A Celebration of Life will be held in the garden (weather permitting) at Rivera Funeral Home at 417 Rodeo Rd., Santa Fe, New Mexico, at 10 am on Tuesday, June 2nd. If you attend, wear bright colors and bring a story to share about Mom.

In lieu of flowers, a donation to Espanola Humane would be appreciated.