Daily Iowegian - 25 April 2007
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Marilyn Etta Murphy Owen, age 78, died peacefully at her home on Friday, March 9, 2007 from a brain tumor.
Marilyn was born in Melrose Park (Chicago), Illinois to Bert Francis and Helen Melissa (Smith) Murphy on February 20, 1929. She was a talented tap dancer and singer, performing publicly at a very young age. In 1944 her family moved from Chicago to the family farm just west of Centerville. Marilyn attended Centerville High where she trained to become a teacher and was active in the performing arts. After graduating, she taught at the Murphy School, a one-room
schoolhouse (Appanoose County) and later at Hills (Iowa City).
On June 15, 1947, Marilyn Murphy married Donald Robert Owen at the Murphy farm. Through Don's career as an electrical engineer, they lived in several Midwest and East Coast cities including the Philadelphia area where Marilyn, a gifted artist, studied oil painting at the Sanski Studio. Marilyn and Don settled in 1966 in the Washington, D.C., area where Don worked at COMSAT as an executive in satellite communications. While Don traveled on business to almost every country in the world, Marilyn raised their two daughters and led a large Girl Scout troop. Marilyn enjoyed accom-panying Don on several of his international travels. After Don's death in 1992, Marilyn studied watercolor under Jean Gill. In recent years, her love of art inspired her to travel to Paris and Germany.
Marilyn is survived by her daughters and their husbands, Paula and William Franks of McLean, Va., and Kelly and Thomas Jerosch of Centerville, Va., as well as her brother and sister-in-law, Bert and Pat Murphy of Bettendorf and several nieces and nephews.
Her parents, aunts, uncles and a niece, Diana Owen Glenn, preceded her in death.
Gravestone in the Jerome Cemetery of
Donald Robert Owen and Marilyn Etta Murphy Owen
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The editor sincerely appreciates the contribution to The Jerome Journal by Richard Inman of Hamilton, Ohio, of the obituary of Marilyn Etta Murphy Owen.
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