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Obituary for Marian Rita Kerr
Marian Rita Kerr
Marian was born May 18, 1924 to a tall and charming Jewish father, August (Gus) Schwalb, and a short, feisty and faithful Irish mother, Frances Marie Ryan. She graduated from Denver’s East High School in 1942 and from The University of Denver in 1946 with a BA in History. World War II had just ended and with celebration in the air that spring the students at DU chose Marian as their “Queen of the May,” a testimony both to her beauty, and her endearing popularity. She married her college sweetheart, Navy pilot David Kerr, in 1947 and was pretty much crazy about him for the next 64 years.
Marian was versatile and talented: a great cook, gardener, hostess, golfer; she ran beautiful homes, threw fun parties, raised a lot of money for the Mental Health Association, and always came home with the winnings from her bridge games. She had a marvelous, one-liner sense of humor. She could see the irony and hilarity in the day to day.
And as for us kids, David, Susan, Bill, Gary, she just really liked us. She would let us stay home from school for no other reason than just to be together; and as a woman with correct priorities, she always had time to sit on the couch and eat mint chocolate chip ice cream with her grandkids: Rocky, Annie, Jeffrey, Kimalee, Davie, Katie, Andrew and Julia. Two great-grandchildren, Ava and Rocky, will undoubtedly inherit her love of sweets.
She liked to have fun, and with Dave Kerr she had her share. They traveled the world, had interesting and famous friends, and were witnesses and participants in some of the key events of their era. She stood on the Great Wall of China; rode the Orient Express across Europe; had dinner with Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier in their castle in Monaco; was a house guest of the President of the Ivory Coast; witnessed the launch of Apollo 11 at Cape Kennedy, to name a few.
But it was her faith in God, through Christ, that is her greatest legacy. She fully believed that she could talk to God, that He was listening, and that prayer made a difference. We will not know until we also stand in the perspective of Glory the mountains she moved, the history she changed, the dark forces she held at bay, the souls she carried into the light. Right up to the very end she had important work to do.
Thank you so much Mom for all the fun and all the prayers and all the days we didn’t have to go to school.
The family sincerely thanks her caregivers, Phyllis and Scott Shinkle, for the wonderful home they provided, and for all the love they showered on her. She adored them.
A memorial service will be held for Marian on Wednesday, July 13th, 2016, at 4:00 PM at Cherry Hills Country Club. A reception will follow. Please join us. Marian loved to worship and she loved a good party.
Donations in Marian’s honor can be made to Grand Staff Ministries, a Christian organization serving orphaned children in Swaziland. Donations can be made to Grand Staff Ministries, Inc., P.O. Box 321, Buhler, KS 67522, or on line at www.grandstaffministries.com. Many thanks for remembering Mom by helping children who don’t have a mom.
