Marilyn Kay McInnis Kautz

Marilyn was born in Seattle, Washington on September 15, 1944 to Georgia Ruth Laugenour and Fred Howard McInnis. She lived the first two years of her life on Seattle's Queen Ann's Hill, and later lived in the Washington cities of Kirkland and Wenatchee, before settling on Mercer Island, where she graduated from Mercer Island High School. She attended Brigham Young University for a couple of years, before starting a career as an actuary clerk in Seattle. She also was a bank teller at a bank in Dover, New Jersey.

Marilyn met her future husband, William Kautz, on a blind date in summer of 1967, and an engagement resulted later that summer. There was a long-distance engagement with her beau while he completed his final year at SUNYAB at Buffalo, New York. They married in her Mercer Island home, and were fortunate to have both families present. They then traveled from Washington to Carson, Alberta, Canada where they were sealed to each other in the LDS temple. Together, married life started in Mt. Arlington, New Jersey. They later bought a home in Tranquility, New Jersey. They lived in New Jersey for 4 ½ years, before moving to Geneseo, Illinois where they lived for 28 years. Marilyn was so excited to know she was pregnant and would become a mother. Her first child, Heather, was born in New Jersey (1970), followed by three other children in Illinois, Alissa (1974), Adam (1977) and Justin (1979). Each was an exciting event. Motherhood was her crowning achievement.

Once the last child was off to school, Marilyn studied three years at Moline Public School of Nursing. She received a Diploma in Nursing and obtained her RN from Illinois. She worked at Moline Public Hospital and United Hospital in Moline, Illinois, St Luke's Hospital in Davenport, Iowa, Henry County Community Hospital in Geneseo, Illinois, and Trinity Hospital in Rock Island, Illinois. After 32 years of living in the East/Midwest, she was finally able to move back to Washington in the fall of 2000. Her final job was at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, from which she retired in 2009.

Marilyn had a fondness for camping; her favorite pastime was doing cross stitch, and she liked to go on volksmarches. When she got fibromyalgia in the late 90s, all walking came to an end.

Marilyn was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and also belonged to Daughters of the American Revolution and Daughters of Norway.

On December 17, 2013, Marilyn learned that she had stage four liver, lung, and colon cancer. She began chemotherapy later that month but had to discontinue it mid April 2014 due to its devastating effect on her. She came under hospice care on April 29, 2014. The fibromyalgia, neuropathy, chronic fatigue, cancer, and failed chemotherapy combined to make her extremely weak.

She is survived by her husband, William George Kautz; four children, Heather May Kautz of Las Vegas, Nevada, Alissa Wynne Kautz of Lacey, Washington, Adam Brock Kautz of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Justin Todd Kautz of New Bedford, Massachusetts; and a sister, Kathleen Louise McInnis Nabors of Kingman, Arizona.

She was laid to rest next to her father and mother at Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery in Seattle on 4 September 2014.