Marilyn Dee Peck was born July 18, 1920 in Salina, KS to Iris Maud (Cunningham) Gilstrap and Guy Hayes Gilstrap. Marilyn passed away on April 2, 2014 in her home with her little dog JJ at her side. Marilyn was an only child that periodically lived with various aunts and grandparents while her parents struggled in their careers and relationship. Guy and Iris separated and divorced when Marilyn was three (3) and she really never forgave them for this. Both parents remarried others loves. Iris married Louis M. Rottler when Marilyn was 12. Louis was career Army and treated Marilyn like a daughter and gave the world to her. While living in St. Louis, MO, Marilyn thrived as a teenager being a Jobs Daughter and running track at high school. She was in Junior College in 1950 when a friend of hers brought Warren C. Wilson along from Edwards Air Base to visit her in the hospital. It was love! Warren and Marilyn married September 1951 in St. Louis, MO. Warren was transferred to Denver, Co. where their first son Louis David was born in June 1952. Warren was released from the US Air Force and they moved to Oakland, CA where Warren’s parents (David Lincoln and Josephine Agnes Wilson lived) in August 1952. In September 1952 they bought a house in Mission San Jose (now Fremont) CA. Their second and last child George Colman was born in November 1953. Marilyn took on the full time house wife duties and still had time for Eastern Star, St. James Episcopal Church, quilting, knitting, doll making, Cub Scout Den Mother, organizing and supporting Amateur Athletics Youth Swimming, teaching her sons to sew, iron clothes, wash and to be independent. She prided herself in learning to drive by age 12, being the Kansas family crack shot (shooting a raccoon between the eyes in the chicken coup), and also the family black sheep. Marilyn was fiercely independent. After the death of her youngest son in March1971, she and Warren divorced. After a few years of independence she remarried to Charles Junior Peck in 1975. They lived in Fremont, CA for awhile and then moved to Carmichael, CA. Marilyn worked for CalFarm Insurance for 16 years before retiring and moving to Roseville, CA. Charles and Marilyn divorced in 1999. Charles passed on in February 2002. Warren passed on in February 2011. Marilyn was a volunteer supporter and member of the Sacramento Jazz Society for some 20 years, and walked or rode in the annual Memorial Day Jazz Parade until she was 79 years old. Her favorite was Dixieland New Orleans Jazz, although she listened to all forms and genre of Jazz. She loved Boston Terrier dogs, Nascar and college basketball. She had her March Madness brackets filled in up to the last game lying on the coffee table when we found her lying peaceful as if she were taking a nap. She leaves behind a son Louis (LD) Wilson his wife Rita, their sons Louis II, Benjamin, Joseph and his wife Jacquline. Those that knew her will remember outrageous times with her. Marilyn will be laid to final rest at Chapel of The Chimes, Hayward, CA on Friday April 11, 2014 at 12 noon. The family asks that money be forwarded to the American Cancer Society or a favorite charity in lieu of flowers.
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