Marilyn Lucile Minter, also known as Merk, Jumpy, Mom, Grandmother, Nana and Mrs. G, began her great adventure on January 3rd, 1928 in Pleasanton, Kansas. Whether visiting her grandparents’ store or calling her grandmother to come get her because she was “having a ‘tanner’,” visiting Uncle Ern and Aunt Aora’s farm or spending time with her beloved Aunt Lucile, life in Kansas was filled with fun. She remembered with fondness the years she lived there and the times she returned for summers with her grandparents and later visits with her own family.
Marilyn’s adventure continued when her father lost his business in Kansas during the Depression and the family moved to Washington D.C. Marilyn’s most famous, or infamous, D.C. story involved her being kicked out of her middle school for marching with the ROTC Cadettes instead of going to class. Eventually, the family moved out of D.C. and into Arlington where she lived for the rest of her life. After a year in college, back in Kansas, learning secretarial skills, Marilyn returned to Arlington and got a job working at the Department of the Interior as a secretary. While working there she was often visited by the brother of her boss, George Gauzza, a nice guy who “hung around a lot.” Eventually, Marilyn would need that nice guy to save face with her girlfriends when they were caught in a snowstorm and her then-boyfriend refused to pick them up. Marilyn quickly called George, who abandoned his boat-making project in his parents’ basement and hurried downtown to rescue her and her friends. And that began the next adventure that would last more than 50 years.
Marilyn was married to George Gauzza on November 4th, 1950 in Arlington. The couple moved into a brand-new home that year where she lived the rest of her life. There Marilyn and George celebrated the birth of two children, George and Gail. Marilyn was meticulous about her house. It was always clean, decorated in the latest styles and filled with her many collections from glass bottles and red glass dragged home from road trips all over the country, to her clown collection and figurines. Marilyn was a great hostess who enjoyed dinner parties in the side porch dining room and cocktail parties in the “basement bar and pool hall” where she gained the nickname Sycamore Slim. She served holiday feasts and hosted legendary Christmas parties for family and friends until the end. She loved to cook in her younger years. Her fried chicken and crème pies were the best. She was known to fry up a steak at midnight for George Jr. and his friends. Many of her meals were accompanied by vegetables grown in her own backyard garden. From tomatoes and corn to lima beans and black-eyed peas Marilyn planted, harvested, canned and froze months’ worth of vegetables each summer. Marilyn’s house was a place that people loved to be. She always made you feel welcome whether you had been invited for a formal get together or you dropped by unannounced and caught her still in her nightgown. Marilyn was an excellent conversationalist. She had lots of interesting stories and knowledge to share. She was quick-witted and enjoyed a good laugh. More importantly, she was an excellent listener. You could tell her anything and rest assured it would be safe in her “vault”. Up until the end of her life she was entertaining her friends, her family and the friends of her family who loved to be around her.
Marilyn and George Sr. enjoyed travel. She visited 49 states and several U.S. Territories often driving across country spending time in National Parks and antique stores. Besides Kansas, Idaho and Nevada became her favorite destinations. Idaho because George Jr. moved there and stayed and Nevada because it had, Reno, also known to Marilyn as “Heaven.” In Idaho, Marilyn helped build a log home from scratch with George Jr. and his first wife, Lorelea, where they lived with their two daughters, Skye and Lindsey for many years. While visiting Elmira, she walked in the woods with the dogs, swam in the pond, gardened and cooked for the work crew of George Sr., George Jr., Lorelea, George Jr.’s friends and often Gail and Doug. When Carlin and Casey came to visit that magical spot, she entertained and supervised the four girls. Marilyn visited Reno on her way home from summer trips to Idaho and again in February where she had great luck on the slot machines and playing poker machines, or at least that’s what she told us. Everywhere she went, Marilyn made friends and she enjoyed the time she spent sharing drinks or meals with her pals from Reno. Throughout her life, Marilyn enjoyed trips to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, with George Sr., her brother, Bob, George and Barbara, Gail and Doug, her grandkids and their spouses and great grandkids. Although not much of a beach person in her later years, she enjoyed watching the ocean from the house, greeting her sun-kissed family at lunch and dinner each day, sipping a gin and tonic in the air conditioned house or reluctantly by the pool or deck and playing games and solving jigsaw puzzles in the evening.
When not on the road, Marilyn enjoyed playing bingo at Fort Meyer, her weekly margarita and lunch date with her friend Jean, weekly trips to the beauty parlor, dinners at the club, and spending time with George Sr. around town. She hosted sleepovers that involved letting Carlin and Casey stay up late to watch Dallas and Falcon Crest, never letting them win in cards and sleeping in and letting Granddad handle feeding them breakfast. She looked forward to calls and visits from Skye and Lindsey who she gave the same royal treatment when they were in town. She enjoyed treating the girls to shopping trips at Tyson’s and lunch at Nordstrom’s Café. She bought the best presents, spending hours calling and going to various toy stores to track down the exact requested Cabbage Patch Kid or other desired object. Marilyn enjoyed the addition of Lawson, Joey, Sarah and Aaron to the family and later grandson-in-laws, Steve and Flink, all of whom brought Marilyn joy and showed her a good time.
An unexpected part of Marilyn’s life began with the births of her great grandchildren, Chloe, Jonah, Reid, Natalie, Olivia, Molly, Vann, Sterling and Mila, something she often remarked she was so lucky to see. She was delighted by knowing them and watching them grow. She loved buying them coordinated holiday outfits and hearing the tales of the struggles their parents went through to get them to pose for the perfect picture for their Nana’s refrigerator. She kept M & M’s stocked in the house for their visits. Nana went to their games, recitals and plays and was always so proud to tell people she was their great grandmother. She learned to use an iPad and iPhone to keep up with their many adventures and to facetime with Molly, Vann, Sterling and Mila “out West”. She loved slipping them a little money here and there for a treat, a habit that wasn’t reserved just for them but also for other people she knew it would bring a little joy.
Marilyn had a wonderful life, she said so herself as she was preparing to go on to her next adventure. So many things brought her joy in her lifetime: phone calls and visits from her kids, grandkids and great grandkids and her friends, her many pets, crossword puzzles, a cold draft beer, beaded necklaces, keeping up with the weather in the places the people she loved lived, playing bingo, music, air conditioning, visiting the beauty parlor, yard art, game shows, a bowl of ice cream before bed, romance and mystery novels, a handsome young man, musicals, sending cards, a good joke (especially if it was a little risqué), eating out, driving her big white Lincoln, a nice bouquet of flowers, wine in tiny little bottles, hibiscus plants, a good “uniform”, Giorgio perfume and dancing. To know Marilyn was to know fun, generosity, thoughtfulness, trustworthiness, elegance and sassiness with a little bit of naughtiness but most of all to know her was to know love. She loved so many people and was loved by so many. She will be greatly missed yet will live on in the memories we have and stories we share and that would bring her the most joy.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18