She was born on 20 February 1948 to Vernice Randall Smith and Herbert Lincoln Smith of Norfolk. She is preceded in death by her parents and only sibling, Vernice Loretta Smith Glennon. During her childhood Marilyn was a member of New Calvary Baptist Church in Norfolk. She attended public schools in Norfolk and graduated from Booker T. Washington High school in 1965 and from Virginia Union University in Richmond VA in 1970. Upon graduation she was hired by the Salvation Army in Buffalo NY to serve as a housemother at their Booth Memorial Hospital. In 1971 she was hired by the American Red Cross in their mobile program of Service to the Armed Forces, based out of Washington D.C. She spent her next 42 years providing casework, health, safety and disaster relief services to military personnel and their families around the world in a career she loved. Marilyn lived and worked with the Red Cross on military installations from New York to Florida, in Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii, Okinawa, Korea, and Germany. She also deployed with the Red Cross in support of the military to Kuwait 4 times, Bosnia, and to Saudi Arabia. She retired from the Red Cross in 2014 from her last assignment at Camp Lejeune NC and decided to stay in Jacksonville NC. Marilyn became a volunteer with the USO in Jacksonville NC. She was a member of the "Dancing Dolls" and "Les Rougettes" Red Hat Clubs, both of which she loved. Marilyn acquired numerous friendships with people from all over the world and enjoyed travelling.
Marilyn leaves behind her niece Stephanie Glennon Davidson and her son (Marilyn's grandnephew) Dylan Smith Davidson of Hoboken NJ, her nephew Christopher Glennon of Southgate CA, her brother-in-law Robert B. Glennon of Myrtle Beach SC, her cousin Dr. Margaret Buni Dunn of GA, and numerous cousins and friends.
Marilyn requested there be no funeral service and no repast. She will be interred at Rosewood Memorial Park in Virginia Beach VA in a plot next to her mother.
