Marilyn Bowman 1920 ~ 2011
Marilyn Bowman (Margaret Marilyn Gorsuch) passed on to the angels Friday morning. At her side was her husband of 65 years, Rogers Bowman, and their children Kay and Scott.Born in Cedaredge, Colorado, in 1920, she was raised along with her brothers George and Tom Gorsuch and sister Jean (Jean Turner) all of whom predeceased her, in Cedar-edge, Fort Collins and Grand Junction, where she attended her senior year of high school and met her eventual husband, Rogers. Marilyn graduated from Mesa Junior College in Grand Junction and was chosen the 1940 Mesa College Beauty Queen in a beauty contest judged by the famous American pin up artist, George B. Petty. She and Rogers began their 70 year romance while at Mesa. During World War II, Marilyn worked as a bookkeeper for Firestone Rubber Company in Grand Junction and Denver. Upon returning from four years in the Marine Corps, Rogers married Marilyn in Redondo Beach, California, and their life odyssey began. Marilyn moved with Rogers, who was employed by Chevron Oil, from refineries in California, Colorado and Utah, before they made a decision to take their young family overseas and spent the next three years in the Philippines, They returned to their hometown of Grand Junction when Rogers took a job at the American Gilsonite refinery that started up in Loma in 1957. Marilyn was the prototypical mother and wife of the 1950's and 60's, raising her children and homemaking. She was well ahead of her time in proclaiming that the sugar in soft drinks was not healthy, that television was brain pabulum and for many years refused to allow either in her home. (Much to the dismay of her children) She enjoyed bridge and reading books and became legendary among her children's friends and neighbors for her baking skills, particularly her cookies and orange rolls. In 1972, Marilyn and Rogers were transferred to Salt Lake City and spent the next 37 years in their lovely home in the Bountiful hills. With her children no longer at home Marilyn became a volunteer at the Bountiful Lakeview Hospital and the University of Utah Fine Arts Museum. After retirement, she and Rogers traveled throughout much of the United States and Canada and enjoyed more exotic travel to Alaska, England, Scotland, France, Austria, Switzerland, Turkey, Greece and Hong Kong. Marilyn loved the visits from her grandchildren, Kate and Drew Bowman, spoiling them with her famous cookies. When Marilyn's health began to fail they moved back to Grand Junction to be closer to their children. Known as Miss Marilyn by her caregivers, she will be greatly missed by her family and friends and Jack, a yellow lab, to whom Marilyn loved to give potato chip treats.