Marilyn Aster Martin Page

Marilyn was born April 5, 1933, in Gaffney, South Carolina. She was the youngest daughter of five children born to Matathas Luther Martin and Vera Parris Martin. The family lived in Gaffney where her parents worked at a textile mill, her father starting there at the age of 12.

Marilyn was secretly taught to roller skate by her older brothers when she was 5 years old. They pushed her around the house on skates until she was able to balance, then strapped two pillows to her, took her outside to the sidewalk, and let her go downhill. She survived the ride so well that her brothers never got in trouble for letting their 5-year-old sister roll downhill on skates for the first time. Marilyn said that roller skating became her favorite thing to do, and she skated regularly while growing up until she married in 1953.

Marilyn’s family moved to Rockingham, North Carolina when she was in third grade, living in a “mill village” in Cordova and then moving to a different village in East Rockingham when entering 8th grade. The village was provided for employees of the local textile mills where her parents worked. She loved living in the village where she had lots of friends in her age group and a roller rink close by. The village also provided a movie theater, softball teams, glee clubs, teenage clubs and a bowling alley. As a teen, her favorite things to do on a typical Saturday were to go bowling with friends, roller skate at the rink, and then go to a movie, all for a grand total of fifty cents. She spent hours with her friends at the rink, learning to dance on skates and playing pop the whip where she always wanted to be the person on the end of the whip flying around the floor in a huge circle.

Their home was typical of mill villages at the time. The family took baths in a tin tub with water heated on the stove and washed their clothes on a scrub board on the back porch. Over the years, her parents were able to improve the home, adding a bathtub to a remodeled bathroom, a water heater, and a wringer washing machine.

The Martin family was one of the first members in Rockingham of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which they had joined while in Gaffney, S.C. Since there was no church meetinghouse in Rockingham at that time, the family worked with the Powell family, church members who moved into Rockingham when Marilyn was 13 years old, and started a congregation in Rockingham. The church became a very important part of her life from that point forward.

Marilyn married Lee Roy Chavis in 1953, and they had one child, Martin Chavis. After their divorce, she married Sidney Tadlock in 1956 and they had four children: Sidney Jr., Renee, Garry, and Karen. In 1994, Marilyn married Ralph Page and became mother to a second family of 10 children: Marvin, Garth, Joylene, Melody, Justen, Gaylee, Merrill, Cheerilyn, Mistigail, and Cortney.

Marilyn is survived by all five of her biological children: Martin Tadlock (LaRae), Sidney Tadlock Jr.(Ellen), Garry Tadlock, Renee Overstreet (Bob), and Karen Whitlow (Jeff), and all ten Page children: Marvin Page (Gay), Garth Page (Rebecca), Joylene Kay, Melody Densley (Ken), Justen Page (Michelle), Gaylee Coverston (Jason), Merrill Page (Shantell), Cheerilyn Hall (Matt), Mistigail Thayne (Joshua), and Cortney Page.

Marilyn followed the passing of her siblings, who will be waiting for her with roller skates in hand.