We are sad to report the death of Marilyn; Wife, Mother, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother on February 18, 2025, Just a month shy of her 94th birthday.
Marilyn arrived on the Island of Manhattan on March 25, 1931, the daughter of Kenneth Angus McDonald and Lulu Pearl Sommerville. After settling in Queens, she roller-skated her way through the building of LaGuardia Airport and the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Marilyn attended schools in New York City, Yonkers and Ogdensburg and she graduated from Ogdensburg Business School in1949. She was secretary to Optometrist George Bailey. She married newly commissioned Air Force 2nd Lt. Timothy Joseph Downs Jr. on June 26, 1954 at St. Mary’s Cathedral, performed by the Rev. Timothy Ladden.
During Tim’s ten years of active duty she lived in Tucson, Arizona, Fort Dix, New Jersey (McGuire AFB) and Plattsburgh AFB, New York. She had her two sons, Timothy J. Downs and Bryan M. Downs in Ogdensburg and spent time back home while Tim spent a year in Iceland.
She moved to the nineteenth ward in Rochester in August of 1964 where she attended Westminster Presbyterian Church and served as a Deacon. In 1970 the Family moved to Chili, were she attended Gates Presbyterian Church.
Marilyn had a special place in her heart for the School of the Holy Childhood where she worked as a volunteer while it was on Buffalo Road.
Marilyn was pre-deceased by her parents, her brother Kenneth McDonald and her sister-in –law Dawn McDonald. She is survived by Her Husband, Tim, Her sons Timothy (Biying) and Bryan (Karen), grandchildren Matthew, Nathan, Allison, Julia, Alexsandra and Yangyan and several great-grandchildren Brandon, Gavin, Karla, Arianna, Levi, Hope, Oona, Julianna, Tallulah, Enzo and great-great grandson Bryson.
Given that Marilyn is the heart of our Family, that’s its winter and we are spread all over the country, we had her Pastor, Rev. Laura Bachman, celebrate a committal service on the 24th of February, where Marilyn was laid to rest in her gravesite in the Four Chaplains section of White Haven Cemetery. We will have a celebration of her life at the church in the Spring. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the School of the Holy Childhood.
