Marlee Jane Horrocks

Marlee was born August 24, 1950 in Topeka, Kansas, to James and Marjorie Lee Parmiter. She was a graduate of the University of Kansas (1972) and the University of Michigan School of Information Science (1992).

She married David Horrocks in 1975 and was always his love and best friend. Her early professional life included work for the National Archives in Kansas, Washington DC, and Michigan. In her later career, Marlee was assistant director of the Saline District Library, retiring in 2012.

Family life was her greatest and most constant joy. She worked purposefully to cultivate it and thrilled to see her daughters carry it forward. Her daughters and grandchildren were bounteous sources of warmth, adventure, pride, and comfort.

Marlee was passionate about books and public libraries, kept loyal to friends, and was an enthusiast for live theatre, concerts, museums, and travel. She had wit, warmth, inner strength, and a clear moral compass. She was also too modest to ever have approved her family writing these things.

Marlee is survived by her husband David; daughter Caitlin Horrocks (Todd Kaneko) and grandson Leo of Grand Rapids; daughter Mary Horrocks (James Kern) and grandson Calvin of Boston; brother James Parmiter (Linda Miller) of Shawnee, Kansas; and her mother Marjorie, of Lenexa, Kansas.

All funerary arrangements are private. Marlee will rest at Forest Hill Cemetery near the U-M peony garden that she loved. If you wish to honor her life, please perform a quiet act of simple kindness for someone in your life or community.