Holladay
Marilyn Holladay, a native and lifelong resident of Mobile, passed away peacefully on Thursday surrounded by her family. She was 73.
Born Marilyn May Farnell, to Ralph Farnell and May Hunter Farnell in 1939, she attended Mertz Elementary School, where she first met her future husband Ralph Holladay, and then Murphy High School ('57). They married in 1959 and have 2 daughters, Angela and Cassie. They moved to Dawes, in West Mobile, in 1976 and welcomed 2 sons-in-law and 3 grandchildren.
Marilyn led an active life devoted to many crafts and hobbies, her work at the University of South Alabama, and her beloved family and friends. She had both a talent and a passion for piano, sewing, crocheting, cooking and, perhaps most of all, baking. For a time professionally, and throughout her life, Marilyn created exquisitely decorated cakes for weddings and holidays.
Marilyn retired from the Department of Comparative Medicine at the University of South Alabama in 2007 after over 25 years of service. The years after her retirement were devoted to family, friends and church. She will also be remembered for her dignity, bravery and persistent optimism in the face of the cancer which claimed her life.
Marilyn is survived by her husband of 53 years Ralph Holladay, daughters Angela Holladay (Bill and Gabriel) and Cassie Roote (James, Alex and Aaron), sister Judy McMichael (Fay, April, Noel and Kipp), brother Daniel Farnell (Carolyn, Andrea, Cynthia and Evelyn) and the rest of her family and many friends.
The family would like to thank Dr. Barbara Mitchell, Dr. Michael Finan, Employees of Mitchell Cancer Center, Odyssey Hospice, and their church family at Theodore Ward, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Visitation will be held at Memorial Gardens Funeral Home, 6040 Three Notch Road on Tuesday, June 4, 2013 at 12 noon, until services begin at 2:00 pm. Interment will follow at Pine Crest, West, 1599 Snow Road South, Mobile, AL.
Published in the The Mobile Press-Register from May 30 to June 2, 2013