Marilyn Jean Allen

Marilyn Jean Allen, age 92, passed away peacefully in her sleep in Highlands Ranch on Monday, April 24, 2023 after struggling with the effects of Alzheimer’s disease for the past 4 years. Marilyn was born November 23, 1930 in Sioux Falls, SD to Herbert and Dorothy (Neeley) Amesbury. She met Robert Leslie Allen while in grade school and, after graduating from Macalester College in 1952, they married. They spent 56 years together until his passing in 2008. Marilyn liked to tell friends and family “I knew since I was little that I wanted Bob, I just didn’t know what for yet.”

Marilyn and Bob moved to Colorado Springs in 1960 where they raised their three children and where she worked as a librarian at Fremont Elementary School. In 1980 Bob finished building a cabin in St. Elmo, CO and they retired there at age 50. In the winter one could find Marilyn riding on the back of Bob’s snowmobile, working on family genealogy, or knitting sweaters for her grandchildren. In the summer Marilyn and Bob spent their time welcoming friends, family, and often strangers into their cabin home and traveling to Alaska to fish or Europe to track down long lost relatives. Regardless of her adventures, Marilyn was sure to redden the cheeks of her family with her jokes and keep everyone around her smiling with her sense of humor and silly antics. Marilyn would credit her long life to surrounding herself with life’s pleasures on a daily basis – milk chocolate, singing in community choirs, and anything the color blue.

Marilyn is preceded in death by her husband Bob, daughter Susan Kay Allen, and brother William Neeley Amesbury. She is survived by daughter Leslie Jean Allen Dixon (Wayne), son William Amesbury Allen (Suzanne) and grandchildren Molly Kathleen Allen, Liam Leslie Allen, Scott Allen Rogers, Paul Robert Rogers (Andrea), and Laura Susan Warner (Brandon). Memorial donations can be made to Alzheimer's Association | Donate to Fight Alzheimer's Disease or Home | Historic St. Elmo (historicstelmo.org)..

A celebration of Marilyn’s life will be held in St. Elmo later this summer.