Maralyn Ray Hepner

Maralyn Ray Hepner passed away in her sleep at Genesis Medical Center early in the morning on September 2, 2024, at the age of 87, following a fall and later-stage dementia. Per her wishes, cremation rites have been accorded. A memorial service will take place at Weerts Funeral Home 11 a.m., Saturday, September 21, 2024. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. and conclude at the time of service. Maralyn will be laid to rest at Blue Grass Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to St. Alban’s Episcopal Church of Davenport, IA.

Maralyn Ray Gress was born to parents Parker Eugene Gress and Ruth Boardman Johnson Gress on October 12, 1936, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Maralyn was the oldest of three children, including sister Claudia Criswell, and younger brother Gerald Gress.

Maralyn attended Iowa State Teachers College campus school from kindergarten at age four through high school as her family home was close to the campus in Cedar Falls. After high school, she continued with a college education and graduated with a 2-year degree in lower elementary education. After one year of teaching in Montour, Iowa, Maralyn again returned to Iowa State Teachers college and completed a 4-year bachelor’s degree in 1959. Later in her teaching career, she returned to school once again at Western Illinois University and completed her Master of Science in education in 1988.

In her 20’s, Maralyn moved to the Davenport, Iowa area with friends for a teaching position which resulted in a career spanning 40-years as an elementary school teacher in the Davenport Public School System, teaching first, second, and sixth grades at Jefferson, Wilson, Blue Grass, Fillmore, and finally at Truman Elementary School before her retirement in 1999.

In 1961, Maralyn also accepted an overseas teaching position in Karlsruhe, Germany, educating US Army children and spent the year teaching first grade and traveling all over Europe. This was a fond memory and exciting experience in her life.

While attending an ‘In-Bees’ event for single adults at St. John’s Methodist Church in Davenport, she met William (Bill) Hepner. On August 3rd, 1963, Maralyn wed Bill at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa with whom she shared 61 wonderful years of marriage.

Maralyn resigned her teaching position in the summer of 1966 to start a family. She and her husband Bill made many financial sacrifices so that Maralyn was able to be at home with her young children for many years before she returned to her teaching career. Maralyn made a warm loving home for her family in the west end of Davenport in the house that she and Bill constructed in 1966, a home that she and Bill shared for 58 wonderful years.

Maralyn is survived by her husband of 61 years, William Hepner, her brother Gerald (Judy) Gress of Waverly, Iowa, her two children - Shelley (Rick) Gerjets of Humboldt, Iowa, and Tony (Janelle) Hepner of Scottsdale, Arizona, as well as three grandchildren: Jessie Palm of Phoenix, Arizona, and Troy Gerjets and Savanna Gerjets, both of Ames, Iowa. She was loved immensely by her immediate family and had many loving in-laws, cousins, nieces and nephews, and friends.

Maralyn was a devoted worshiper at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Davenport. She had a passion for genealogy and had collected volumes of researched family records going back centuries. For many years, she volunteered at the Davenport Public School Museum and with the Scott County Genealogical Society where she and her sister, Claudia, were Volunteers of the Year in 2019. She was also an active member of the local chapter of the ADK Teachers Sorority. She had a passion for travel and had fond memories of her trips with Bill, family and friends to southern Spain, France and Italy, as well as various road trips throughout many parts of the scenic western United States. In her later years, Maralyn enjoyed experiencing new restaurants, reading the daily paper and completing the daily word puzzles, and her nightly games of Scrabble or Five Crowns at the kitchen table with Bill.

Maralyn never took the “direct route.” She embraced both the detours of the road and of life. She could never resist the temptation of an unexplored county gravel road, leaving the highway to find the hidden historical marker or unique cultural landmark, or just the extra hour of windshield time on any family drive.

Though her recent battle with dementia took much of her short-term memory, her long-term memory was impeccable. She remembered all names and faces and could recite memories in detail of her reign over her Cedar Falls’ college campus as a child. She also recalled well her road-trips as a single, young adult through southern Germany.

Maralyn was always and forever a proud teacher. She cared deeply about her students and helping them grow. She was a true teacher to the very end, asking every nurse caregiver in the hospital and at Senior Star “Where did you go to school? Who were your teachers? Did I have you in school?”