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Sept. 29, 1951-March 6, 2021
Marilyn Crain Heath
passed away at Hunt Re-
gional Hospital, Green-
ville, Texas, March 6,
2021.
She was born at the
U.S. Army base in
Stuttgart, Germany, Sep-
tember 29, 1951 to Ver-
non John Crain and
Cecelia Emma (DeBell)
Crain while her dad was
on duty there.
Family: She leaves her
husband of 43 years, John,
Commerce, Texas; son,
John Paul Heath (Lisa),
Lufkin, Texas;
daughter-in-law, Meagan
Heath and grandson
Aiden James Heath,
Plano, Texas; sisters, Pa-
tricia Lewandowski (Dan),
Buffalo, N.Y. and Carol
Humphreys, San Antonio,
Texas; brothers, Jim
Gibbs, Sevierville, TN and
Kenneth Crain (Micki),
Georgetown, Texas;
sister-in-law, Merry Es-
trem (Dave), Carlsborg,
Washington;
brother-in-law, Brian
Heath (Sylvia), Blaine,
Minnesota; closest nieces,
Erin Heath (Dan Wagner),
Montrose, Minnesota,
Nicole Crain (Eric Mel-
vin), Cornell, Illinois, Al-
lyn Crain, Salado, Texas,
Susan Johnson (Alan),
Seattle, Washington,
Sarah Kankelberg (Rob),
Washougal, Washington,
Cindy Tschoppe (Jim),
San Antonio, Texas;
nephews, Tom Estrem
(Christina), Cottontown,
TN, Bryan Crain, San An-
tonio, Texas, and Austin
and Travis Humphreys,
San Antonio, Texas.
She was preceded in
death by: her parents,
brothers Larry, Donald,
Gene, and Glenn, and
sons Collin Brian Heath
and Alexander James
Heath.
Being in the middle of
eight children, she was
thrust into washing,
cleaning, cooking, sewing,
and child-rearing duties at
an early age. She often
said one of her biggest
mistakes in life (at age 7),
was begging her mother to
let her stand on a box and
help her wash the dishes.
She became a great cook
and was able to sew
over-sized dresses for her
mom by scaling patterns
up to a size to make mom
comfortable and did such
a good job that a store in
downtown San Antonio
exhibited them in their
window and got lots of in-
quiries from prospective
customers. Marilyn, how-
ever, had higher educa-
tion on her mind and real-
ly applied herself at
school and did very well.
She spent a lot of time ba-
bysitting for neighbors
and she quickly became
in high demand because
of her many skills, at
times starting a meal for a
working couple, helping
their kids with home-
work, teaching them how
to shine their own shoes,
make their own bed, and
write appreciative notes to
the parents. She was often
called over the loudspeak-er to come to the office at
school to help with stu-
dents who would only
talk to Marilyn. She was a
chubby girl in high
school, but determined to
lose weight, gave up ba-
con and Cokes and exer-
cised in the yard, because
mom wouldn't let her go
out and walk around the
block. The football coach
had asked her to help tu-
tor the football team when
she was identified by oth-
er teachers as one with
the maturity and sass to
be able to deal with that
clientele. When she
showed up the following
year after losing 40
pounds, they were
amazed at her transforma-tion, but she, having five
brothers at home, knew
how to deal with their
change of attitude. She
graduated from Sam
Houston High School at
age 17 and was deter-
mined to go to Southwest
Texas State, but her
parents forbid her from
leaving home. She com-
plied and went to San An-
tonio College for a year,
but was able to get to
Southwest Texas the next
year.
She was a counsellor at
San Marcos Baptist
Academy while attending
college and was quite ef-
fective with her
problem-solving skills,
homemaking abilities, and
expertise with the
quick-comeback which
took the air out of any
seemingly difficult prob-
lem. She was a mature big
sister for the
boarding-school girls
under her care. She
earned the job as Assis-
tant Dean of Girls at the
age of 20. One of her first
acts was conking a senior
cadet with her large flash-
light when she found him
forcing his attentions on a
freshman girl. She went
on to graduate and start
on her Master's Degree in
Food and Nutrition,
Counselling, and Child
Development which she
finished in the summer of
1977 at ETSU. She moved
on to East Texas State
University in the Fall of
1975, despite the pleas for
her to stay on with
double-pay at the
academy. She worked as
Assistant Manager at ARA
Food Service there and
really made a difference
with the policies and pro-
cedures and morale in the
unit. She was scrutinized
closely by the staff there
at first, but it didn't take
too long for her to develop
a great deal of respect for
their hard work and she
felt the feeling was mutu-
al after she left the unit.
She was on duty when the
football team started hors-
ing around one night after
a late practice and she
blocked, (not locked), the
door and made them
clean it up and fix every-
thing they'd done wrong
before they left, causing
them to miss bed check
that night. Some disgrun-
tled coaches showed up
the next morning
demanding to see the
manager who had done
this to their guys. When
they saw it was a rather
nice-looking 23-year-old
and she explained calmly
to them some of the legal
ramifications of what they
had done, they softened
their tones and agreed to
have some euthenics
classes for the young men.
She was brought to tears
when the employees
threw a surprise baby
shower for her when she
was about to leave and all
the effort they went into
knitting little booties,
blankets, and bonnets for
her first baby. She'd met
this math teacher with a
farm in North Dakota and
they clicked, both of them
having marched to the
beat of their own drum-
mer and both of them
marching to Commerce in
August of '75. She flew up
to visit the folks up there
in the summer of '77, and
they ended up eloping,
much to the surprise of
the Lansford people, most
of whom were delighted.
They spent summers
farming and taking kids to
North Dakota, and like the
credit card commercials
say, they were "priceless."
She made many good
friends there and put her
counselling and
homemaking skills to
good use. Many liked to
engage her in conversa-
tion just to hear her neat
Texas accent. Throughout
the years, she has taught
courses at the university
(one of them being eu-
thenics), had her own
day-care center for young
children, given GED tests,
substituted for the hospi-
tal dietician, coached a lit-
tle kids soccer team,
worked with WIC in
Greenville, and was a
great supporter of her
husband and all her boys'
school activities.
Marilyn was a person
who was not easily intimi-dated, was a hard-working
and effective employee
and boss, a terrific mother
who took no guff, a
wonderful and supportive
wife who put up with her
husband's love of farming
and sports, and a good
friend to have. She never
met a stranger and would
always have a good story
to relate to you.