Marillyn Shiver Nations

After graduating from Ouchita Baptist College and a time working at Baylor University, she met her husband, Ron, in Ridgecrest, NC. Following a summer of weekend dates, they got married in September 1957 and settled in Kingsport, TN, where Ron was already working at Tennessee Eastman. They lived there for 50 years.

Some highlights:

She loved reading, learning, and libraries and making these opportunities available to others: Her garage was a year round drop-off point for donated books to be sold at the American Association of University Women book fairs. A frequent visitor to the Kingsport Public Library, she served stints as president of the library's board and president of the Friends of the Library organization. She also served on the Sullivan County Imagination Library Council.

She and Ron volunteered for many years with Habitat for Humanity, and she was pivotal to bringing First Baptist Church of Kingsport into the house building program. She co-founded and co-managed the first Habitat for Humanity resale store in Tennessee, in support of the Holston chapter.

She stayed actively engaged at her church, where she became a deacon. She was later a member of the Tennessee Southern Baptist Convention board and served a term on the Carson-Newman University Board of Trustees and was a champion of their consumer sciences and nursing programs.

Entrepreneurial by nature, she operated two home businesses plus acquired and managed rental properties. Some of her joys were gardening, cooking, wildflowers, walking, watermelon, time with friends, hunting for 4-leaf clovers, sunsets on the water, bluegrass music, and travel.

She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Ronald Nations, her children: Jay Shiver Nations of Knoxville, TN, Mary Katherine Nations (Kristel, deceased) and Elizabeth Nations Altman (Reed) of Raleigh, NC, grandchildren: Sebastian, Marcel, Marisol, and Merry, sister-in-law Elaine Talbert, and many friends.

No public service is planned.

Memorial contributions can be made to Habitat for Humanity.

Arrangements by Brown-Wynne, 300 Saint Mary's Street, Raleigh.