Marilyn always said with a smile that she was born "in college". Indeed, she was born in the rented apartment of her parents, George H. and Monta Fay Perry, on the second floor of the building that housed the Tobin College Business School in Ft Dodge, Iowa.
She was raised in Nebraska and Kansas. At the age of 8, she went to live briefly with her grandmother in Colby, Kansas, where she met the boy across the street, 3rd grader and future husband, Bill Fryback. It was the custom in those days that on the first of May a boy would leave a "May Basket" at the door of his sweetheart. The boy was supposed to dash away to avoid being kissed. Bill, however, intentionally fell down so he could collect his kiss!
Marilyn eventually earned an AA degree in secretarial science. On 19 Dec. 1943, she married Bill, home on two-weeks leave from the army. She was a full-time mother of five children until 1961, when she returned to her career as executive secretary, retiring in 1990 as secretary to the Head of the Russian Language Division at the National Defense Language Institute, in Monterey, California.
She was a gifted pianist, singer, candy-maker, seamstress, and a willing volunteer at her church and her children's schools. Her grandchildren will forever remember her home-baked cinnamon rolls! Summer camping trips were a family tradition and she and Bill took the children all over the Pacific Northwest and California. Marilyn and Bill were also active square dancers.
In 1996, they moved to Willamette View Retirement Center in Portland, Oregon. Marilyn and her devoted husband took long walks nearly every day. In December 2000, suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, Marilyn moved into the Center's long-term care unit, after Bill could no longer care for her in their home.
Marilyn, perhaps in step with her childhood sweetheart and husband of 60 years, passed away just 12 days before her husband. She is survived by an older brother, Gene Perry; son Dennis G. Fryback and daughter-in-law Judy Fryback of Madison, Wisconsin; son Alan L. Fryback and daughter-in-law Addis Fryback of Macau, China; son Dale M. Fryback and daughter-in-law Gloria Fryback of Bridgeman, Michigan; daughter Monta Lynn Reveal and son-in-law Michael Reveal of Tórshavn, Faroe Islands; daughter Beth A. Fryback of Bellingham, Washington; 10 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren, and many nephews and nieces in Oregon, Washington and Colorado.
