Marilyn Joan Gilmore

Sept 23, 1929 -

Sept 4, 2019

Marilyn Joan Gilmore (formerly Marilyn Van Cott, formerly Splawn, nee Phelps), 89, died peacefully on Sept. 4, 2019, in Kennewick, Wash., after a brief and sudden illness, just 19 days shy of her 90th birthday. She lived an adventure-filled and frequently-nomadic life.

Marilyn was born on Sept. 23, 1929, in Yakima, Wash., the middle daughter of three born to Ruth Elaine Phelps (nee Busch) and John MacDonald Phelps. Marilyn and her two sisters, Phyllis and Alice, were proud descendants of pioneer Washington educators in the Yakima Valley, where they were raised by their beloved parents. Ruth was an elementary school teacher, and John was a Yakima County horticulturalist and World War I Veteran. John was also a talented singer and guitar player, and music was a treasured part of the children's upbringing. Marilyn studied piano and would often play "piano four-hands" duets with her younger sister, Alice. Phyllis, their older sister, focused on learning the violin.

In Yakima, Marilyn attended Garfield Elementary, Adams Elementary and Washington Junior High. After the sudden death of her beloved father, Marilyn's family moved frequently as her mother pursued available teaching positions. As a result, Marilyn attended Wapato High School, in Wapato, Wash.; and, later on, Idaho Falls High School in Idaho. The family returned to Yakima in 1946, and Marilyn graduated from Yakima Senior High School - later renamed Davis High School - in June 1947.

After graduation, Marilyn first worked as a telephone operator in Yakima for Pacific Telephone and Telegraph, and then briefly at their Tacoma location. By 1949, in order to be near her sisters and widowed mother, who was then teaching in Raymond, Marilyn worked various jobs in Willipa and Raymond, Wash.

Though frequently separated from her family, geographically, Marilyn would remain close to her sisters and her mother throughout her life. She was a prolific and entertaining letter-writer and reliable phone correspondent, who always stayed in touch with her extended family and growing wealth of friends.

By early 1950, Marilyn was back in Yakima, where she worked as a skilled secretary for the Fairway Finance Company and attended Yakima Business School. On Jan. 16, 1951, she married Andrew Jackson "Jack" Splawn III. Jack was the grandson of the late A. J. Splawn, North Yakima's first mayor under the new commission form of government when elected in 1911.

In the early years of their marriage, the couple worked on a ranch, belonging to the Splawn Family, located along the Naches River in the Nile Valley. In 1959 and 1961, Marilyn and Jack spent the summer months in Ninilchik, Alaska, situated on the coast of Cook Inlet, Kenai Peninsula, where they tried their hand at running a private commercial fishing boat. Unfortunately, Jack became seriously ill in 1961, forcing them to give up that endeavor. The couple briefly settled in nearby Seldovia, while Marilyn nursed Jack back to health. By 1963, they had moved to Anchorage, where Marilyn accepted various temporary and short-term secretarial positions, including jobs with the RCA Service Company and Standard Oil Company of California. Marilyn ultimately divorced Jack on March 12, 1963, after 12 years of marriage, and struck out on her own.

Remaining in Anchorage after her divorce, Marilyn took a position as Staff Secretary to the Real Estate Manager for the Alaska State Housing Authority. Then, in 1964, she began working for The Alaska Railroad, where she soon advanced, having established herself as an efficient and skilled secretary. Marilyn was highly regarded, respected and relied upon for her lightning-fast typing skills, ability to multi-task, and her thorough and detailed organizational abilities. She was also admired for her quick intelligence and humor, and her spirited personality.

In late December 1963, Marilyn married a handsome, creative, energetic, fun-loving and charming gentleman, Myron E. "Van" Van Cott. Van was a World War II Veteran, having served as Staff Sargent, Squadron D 556th AAF Base Unit, as a Gunnery Instructor. At the time they met, Van was an office manager with the Richfield Oil Corporation, later becoming an Administrative Supervisor in the North American Producing Division for the Alaska District of the Atlantic Richfield Company, after Atlantic Refining merged with his company in 1966. Van was also a talented amateur graphic artist and oil painter. The couple's annual hand-drawn, witty, personalized Christmas card creations, complete with staged "candid" photos of the two of them in thematic, comic poses, were a welcome treat and treasured gift for all those fortunate enough to be included on the Van Cott mailing list.

Van would prove to be the great love of Marilyn's life, and the couple enjoyed an adventurous and extremely happy marriage. Just four months after their wedding, the couple survived the magnitude 9.2 "Great Alaskan earthquake" that struck southwest Alaska on Good Friday evening, March 27, 1964. They joined with a group of fellow apartment-dwellers in Anchorage in pooling resources to survive the difficult days that followed, but were soon forced to relocate due to the extensive quake damage to their residence. Upon returning to her job, Marilyn was shocked to learn a heavy wooden beam had collapsed and crashed right across her desk.

Tragically, in late December 1967, Marilyn's beloved husband, Van, died of a sudden heart attack, cutting short their idyllic marriage after a far-too-brief 4 years.

In January 1969, Marilyn again remarried in Anchorage. Her new husband, Boyd Dean "Charlie" Gilmore, was a hard-working purchasing agent in stock control for Schlumberger Offshore Service. The couple married in the Anchorage First Presbyterian Church. Ultimately, the Gilmores would reside in Anchorage for most of their 33-year marriage; however, from 1971 through 1974 they lived near Rogers, Ark. They moved there to be closer to Charlie's aging parents, as well as his siblings, and his two daughters from a previous marriage, who lived nearby in Kansas.

In Arkansas, they owned and co-managed the Safari Campground on Beaver Lake in the foothills of the Ozarks. The campground comprised 130 campsites, grocery store, gas station, Laundromat, swimming pool, private roadway and recreation hall. The campground was open to guests only part of the year, but Marilyn and Charlie worked very hard all year long in maintaining and managing the enterprise. Charlie soon proved himself to be a mechanical genius, who could accomplish anything, given the right tools, or at least his own creative ingenuity.

After closing the campground at the end of the 1974 season, the couple took stock of their business in light of recent bureaucratic roadblocks to their hope of adding boat moorage on the lakefront. That disappointment, combined with the ongoing fall-out from the 1973 oil embargo, which resulted in gas shortages impacting the travel and tourism industries, greatly reduced their potential customer base. The couple felt it was time to sell their business. They left Arkansas in November of that year; by January 1975, they were living again in Anchorage.

In June 1975, Marilyn was rehired by The Alaska Railroad, and was later promoted to an executive secretarial position in May 1977; she would retire from the company in 1983. In 1977, Charlie began working for B.P. Exploration (Alaska), as part of the trans-Alaska pipeline project, traveling regularly to the Alaska North Slope (Prudhoe Bay) for extended periods in his role as North Slope Warehouse Manager.

In the mid-1970s, Marilyn and Charlie began designing and building their own dream home on property they purchased on the outskirts of Anchorage, living in the finished basement while completing the upper structure. Marilyn took extensive Polaroid photos of each stage of the building project, which she frequently included in letters to her sisters to update them on the latest progress. Invariably, these collections were supplemented by her most recent animal photos, including her beloved pets and her newest native wildlife acquaintances.

The couple enjoyed living in their completed showplace until 1991 when Charlie retired from B.P. Exploration and they sold the home. They spent the next year and a half traveling the United States in a new "fifth-wheel," which they later parked on a retirement property they purchased in Priest River, Idaho. For several years, they divided their time between their home in Priest River and their winter property in Yuma, Ariz., meandering south each fall to ride out the coldest months of Pacific Northwest weather, and taking time to visit various relatives along the way, returning north each spring.

In their retirement, the couple enjoyed gardening and travel. By then, their household also included a small menagerie of pets Marilyn had adopted over the years. Marilyn was known throughout her life for her uncanny ability to charm all animals, both wild and domestic, and she remained passionate, knowledgeable and educated on the latest products and recommendations for caring for various pets, as well as what was and was not appropriate when encountering wildlife. She was happy to share her knowledge with everyone, and she actively supported several animal welfare organizations in her retirement years.

Marilyn and Charlie enjoyed 33 years together before he passed away of cancer in August 2002.

In 2003, following Charlie's death, Marilyn moved to Sequim, Wash., where she loved volunteering at Peninsula Friends of Animals, a cageless, no-kill, non-profit animal welfare group serving the Olympic Peninsula. At their Port Angeles facility, Marilyn spent hours caring for various cats – two of whom she adopted when she left Sequim. She often liked to say, jokingly, before heading off for her shift at the facility, "Well, I'm off to work at the cat-house."

Due to the difficult logistics involved in visiting family while residing in Sequim, she relocated again in 2007 to Chehalis, Wash. For the next 8 years in Chehalis, she delighted in frequent visits with her sisters and cousins and their families, as well as visits from her Alaska friends, and she embraced the active community of neighbors, who grew to be dear and supportive new friends.

In 2015, Marilyn moved into a senior living facility in Kennewick, Wash., where she could be closer to her sister, Alice, and her niece, Carrie Julian, and other members of her family. Marilyn lived in Kennewick, enjoying frequent contact and gatherings with her extended family, until her passing 4 years later.

In addition to the loss of her beloved parents, John M. Phelps in 1940 and Ruth Phelps in 1980, Marilyn was preceded in death by her second husband, Myron E. "Van" Van Cott in December 1967; and by her third husband, Boyd D. "Charlie" Gilmore in August 2002. Marilyn was also preceded in death by her cherished younger sister, Alice Ruth Baker (nee Phelps) in May 2018; as well as several in-laws and a large number of maternal and paternal aunts, uncles and cousins, including her beloved "Uncle Harry" Alpheus Harrison Phelps in 1962; and her aunt, Edna Nolton in the 1980s. Marilyn's ex-husband, A. J. "Jack" Splawn, passed away in 2010.

Marilyn is survived by her treasured elder sister, Phyllis Phelps-Spencer of Clearfield, Utah (formerly of Oakland, Calif.); her cousin, Robert Sprague of Olympia, Wash.; two stepdaughters: Theresa Gutierrez and Jerrie Lucke, both of Humboldt, Kan., and their families; as well as her many nephews and nieces, including Rosemary Baker-Monaghan (and Daniel Monaghan) of Seaside, Ore.; Douglas Patrick Baker of Yakima, Wash.; Carrie Ann Julian (widow of Robert Julian) of Kennewick, Wash.; Daniel Clinton Baker of Seattle, Wash.; David Lake (and Linda) of Anaheim, Calif.; Peggy Lake of Lakewood, Colo.; Sharon Lincoln of Ogden, Utah; and Sheila Barcklay (and Thomas) of Kaysville, Utah; as well as various cousins, grand-nieces, grand-nephews and Gilmore Family in-laws.

At Marilyn's request, there will be no formal funeral service. Marilyn arranged to be cremated and her ashes will be interred on June 3, 2020, during a private ceremony, beside the grave of her great love, "Van" Van Cott, in the Elks Garden section of Angelus Memorial Park Cemetery in Anchorage. A family memorial service will be held for her at the site sometime in 2021, depending on the state of the current pandemic. Some of her ashes will be scattered alongside those of her third husband and beloved companion of 33 years, Charlie Gilmore, on the Oregon Coast.

The family requests any memorial remembrances be directed, in Marilyn's name, to the ASPCA, the American Humane organization or Peninsula Friends of Animals in Sequim, Wash., where Marilyn volunteered for several years.