Marilyn Richardson Cole

Marilyn, 89, lived in Monterey for nearly 50 years. She was well-known in the golfing community on the Monterey Peninsula and, until recently, played regularly as a member of the Women’s Golf Club at Bayonet & Black Horse Golf Course.

She lived the life of an Army wife as an adult and an Army brat growing up. She was born Marilyn Kuulei Richardson at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu in 1936, the second daughter of Maryland Ford Richardson and James Lowell Richardson. She spent her childhood traveling throughout the United States and internationally, including to the Philippines and Germany. Her father ended his career as commanding general of the Sixth United States Army at the Presidio of San Francisco.

Marilyn attended Washington-Lee High School (now Washington-Liberty High School) in Arlington, Virginia, and graduated in 1954. She was homeroom secretary, and a member of the Fashions and Modeling Club and Tri-Y Delta.

After high school she moved to Germany, where she and her future husband Raymond Franklin Cole met in church. They married in 1955 at Cooke Barracks, in Goppingen, Germany. She raised three children—Debbie, Brenda, and Jim—while her life of travel in an Army family continued, including another stint in Germany and several years in South Korea. When her husband was serving in Vietnam, she lived in Seaside and volunteered at the American Red Cross.

She settled in Monterey in 1979 and was an active member of the retired military and golfing community.

She is survived by her children Brenda Cole Seymour, of San Francisco, and Jim Cole, of Duncans Mills, and grandsons Nathan Cole, of Alameda, and Raymond Cole-Machuca, of Bend, Oregon. She was preceded in death by her daughter Debbie Cole Derr, of Denver, and husband Col. Raymond Franklin Cole, who is buried at Golden Gate National Cemetery.

Marilyn was cared for in her final days by the staff at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. Her family is deeply grateful for their compassionate care.

A private memorial is planned later this summer at Golden Gate National Cemetery.