Marilyn J. Munn

Marilyn Jean Rowland Munn, daughter of Carl M. Rowland and Luella Layne Rowland, was born December 19, 1930 and died on June 27, 2017 in Ashland, Kentucky at the age of 86.

She is preceded in death by her husband Richard Eugene Munn, Sr. to whom she was married over fifty years, and her son, Richard Eugene Munn, Jr. who died at the age of 42, as well as her brother, Carl Rowland, Jr.

Marilyn is survived by her daughter, Kathy L. Munroe, her son, Charles R. Munn, her grandchildren Jennifer Downs, Benjamin Munroe, Justin Munn, and Matthew Munn, and her great-grandchildren Morgynne Downs and Coraline Downs.

Throughout her life she was an avid learner, attending Mrs. Norton's School and Ashland Public Schools, Ashland Community College, and Marshall University.

She worked for the Ashland Monument Company, Grolier Encyclopedia in Maryland, as a substitute teacher for the Ashland Public Schools, and was a Navy wife at Camp LeJeune during the Korean War era.

She was a faithful member of South Ashland United Methodist Church and  First Church of God.  She was a life-long liberal Democrat and an advocate of human rights. Marilyn was a true fan of University of Kentucky Basketball.

Also a dedicated volunteer, she worked with several church food pantries, the American Heart Association, was a Cub Scout and Boy Scout Den Mother, and a Paul Blazer Band Parent during the Larry Moore years. She built houses with Habitat for Humanity and worked with King's Daughter's Hospital. She played the piano and sang in the church choir. Marilyn was certified as an AIDS educator through the University of Kentucky, and co-founded the Kentucky Association for People Living with Aids through which she provided support to numerous families and individuals affected by HIV and AIDS. She wrote a book regarding how her son Rick and his struggles opened her heart and mind to acceptance of LGBT people.

Marilyn was an enthusiastic traveller, visiting nearly all forty-eight continental states, Mexico, Canada, and Great Britain. One of her best friends is a resident of Wales, with whom she had been pen-pals since age fourteen. She loved tent camping, especially in the Smokey Mountains and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Marilyn enjoyed gardening and created a beautiful hillside rock garden featuring Japanese iris, phlox, and large rocks from every state to which she had travelled. She was a bird watcher, and loved her many pets.

She was also a genealogical researcher, completing an extended family tree with supporting documentation of approximately 73,000 people. Marilyn is related to just about everyone, from George Bush to Larry Flynt, and could  prove it.

She was an economic homemaker, who grew her own vegetables, made jams,  and canned. She sewed and mended, laundered and ironed before wrinkle free was even an idea. She cleaned and tidied up, shopped and cooked, and managed the finances. She never forgot a birthday or a holiday and kept in touch with all her family. She taught us right from wrong, to read and write, brush our teeth, wipe our feet, take care of our pets, and have many adventures in life.

She was enthusiastic, opinionated, multi-talented, determined, generous, loyal, and kind, loved by her family and true friends and will be dearly missed.

Funeral services will be held 1:00pm Monday, July 3, 2017 at the Steen Funeral Home Central Avenue Chapel by Chaplain Jimm Smedley. Burial will be in the Ashland Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5-7pm Sunday at the funeral home.

Online condolence to www.steenfuneralhome.com

 Service Information