Obituary of Marilyn Joan Neely

Marilyn Joan Neely age 96 longtime resident of Iowa City died of natural causes Monday, December 2, 2024, in Iowa City.  Marilyn was born March 31, 1928, and raised in Renwick, Iowa

Marilyn had fond memories of growing up in the small town of Renwick, surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, where faith and a strong sense of community sustained them even during the depression and war years.   Marilyn and her friends held bake sales and collected pennies to buy war stamps.  No gas meant no school buses to drive the students to away games.  The parents pooled ration coupons and loaded cars with teammates and fans.    With such a small school, Marilyn said you got to (or had to) do it all. The girls and boys both played their basketball games on the same night. Girls played the first game, then went up and put on cheerleader uniforms to cheer for the boys. At half time she played trombone in the band.  These activities were on top of her participation in the newspaper, plays, chorus and academics.

She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1950 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English education.  She taught high school English in both Gilmore City and Iowa Falls, Iowa.   She met her husband Marion in Iowa Falls, after he surveyed the pictures of the new teachers, and made sure to be introduced. He made the mistake of asking if she was a school teacher, which irritated her, and she gave a snappy retort, “Does it show?”  It was only later he confessed that he had seen her picture in the newspaper.

Marilyn and Marion were married on July 13, 1952 in Renwick. While they lived in both Mason City and Des Moines, she said that life kept pulling them back to Iowa City where Marion started his law practice.  They raised their two children, and put down deep roots.  

Marilyn served in numerous community leadership roles throughout her 70 years in Iowa City.  These included President of the Parent Teacher Organization, Commissioner on Iowa City Park & Recreation Board, Appointee of Mayor’s Youth Employment Program, Board member of Council of International Visitors in Iowa City (CIVIC), Board member of State Historical Society Incorporated, Officer of Eastern Star, and Member PEO Chapter E. She was active in the First United Methodist Church, serving on various commissions and as president of United Methodist Women, as well as the board of Church Women United.   She imparted her love of reading to her own children as well as students at Northwest Junior High and City High Schools where she was a teacher associate in the library.   In later life, Marilyn volunteered in the Speak Up Program at Ernest Horn Elementary School and the Pen Pal program at Kirkwood Elementary School.  She was a member of several book clubs and chair of the Thursday afternoon book club.

Devoted Hawkeye fans, Marilyn and Marion planned their fall social calendar around the football schedule, attending three Rose Bowls, two Orange Bowls, and an Outback Bowl as well as the Big 10 Championship.  Starting with her freshman year in 1946, she almost never missed a game.  Watching all Hawkeye teams on the Big 10 Network was one of her favorite pastimes.   She cheered especially loudly for the Iowa women’s basketball team.  She liked to say, “once a Hawkeye always a Hawkeye.”

She enjoyed children of all ages.  At one time, the little ones in the neighborhood called her “the Cookie Lady,” because she dispensed vanilla wafer cookies, warm hugs and listened with keen interest to their stories. 

Marilyn was devoted to her own grandchildren, who she said put the sparkle in her life.  She attended all of their major programs, concerts and athletic events, and knew the names of every friend and their parents from nursery school through college.  She unabashedly led the standing ovations at all school events, being of the strongly held view that grandparents could be unconstrained in their pride and joy.  And, she was. 

Faith, family and friends were the driving forces of her life.  The note she kept by her bed, and read every morning said, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  Her belief was to always smile, no matter how she felt. Even in her final few days when she struggled to speak, she shared her warm smile with nurses, aides and doctors.  In her last conversations with her children and grandchildren, she got a big smile when they said, “I love you.”. She said, “I love you too.”

Marilyn was preceded in death by her husband, Marion R. Neely, parents, Dr. W.H. and Norma (Tanck) Long, and her sister, Marjorie Long Hey.   She is survived by her children, Susan Neely, Robert Neely, grandchildren, Eve Jones, Ben Jones, and her nephews, David Hey, and Mitchell Neely (Laura).

A memorial service and reception will be held at Melrose Meadows (350 Dublin Drive, Iowa City, Iowa), Saturday, January 4, 1-3PM.  In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church or the Neely Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing, supporting outstanding women writers in the University of Iowa Writers Workshop at https://givetoiowa.org/neely.

Please visit this link below from the Daily Iowan reflecting a bit of Marilyn’s life:                                  

https://dailyiowan.com/2017/09/21/decades-and-decades-of-hawkdom/