Marilyn Yvonne (Nelson) Jeffers, 78, passed away Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021.
She was born Jan. 29, 1943, at St. John’s Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., to Sigvold Adolph “Duffy” Nelson and Hazel Violet (Stowell) Nelson, joining older brothers Joseph “Joe” and Richard “Dick,” and older sister Violet Mae. The four were later joined by brother Gary and sister Beverly.
Marilyn graduated from St. Paul Park High School in 1961 and attended two years at Winona State University, Winona, Minn., intending to major in education. It was in Winona where she met Herb C. Jeffers, of Lincoln, Kan. He tells of their meeting at a college student party: “I saw her walking out of the room and decided to follow.” They continued dating over the next year and a half or so, the latter part of their dating long distance after Herb was transferred to the Bay State Milling Co. in Leavenworth, Kan. They married May 14, 1966, at Park Lutheran Church in St. Paul.
After their wedding day, Marilyn and Herb made their first home together in Leavenworth, Kan., for six months. On Jan. 7, 1967, they moved to Pullman where Herb took a job with the USDA Western Quality Wheat Lab on the Washington State University campus and pursued his graduate degree. Marilyn was apprehensive about the move to Pullman, lamenting, “Where in the hell is this place?” After a bit, she got a job in the circulation department at the WSU library. She worked until she learned she was expecting a baby.
On July 11, 1968, Marilyn and Herb welcomed their first son, Brent Herbert. On Aug. 4, 1973, they welcomed a daughter, Rachelle Mary, and on July 23, 1977, they welcomed Stephen Bruce.
Marilyn stayed mostly home throughout her children’s childhood, working off and on as an office assistant and again at the library. In 1986, she began working for the Washington State University Foundation. She joined the Call-A-Coug program in 1988. In her time there, she helped the program grow tremendously. Call-A-Coug began with several callers calling from the halls of the French Administration Building, raising $124,000 the first year. In 1990, the program moved into a new space at the Lewis Alumni Center. During that time, and with a great deal of Marilyn’s assistance, the program grew to raise more than $2.3 million a year. In 1996, Marilyn played a large role in the transition of using paper cards to a fully automated dialing system. Marilyn’s efforts helped raise over $26 million for programs all over WSU. Since her start at Call-A-Coug, Marilyn worked with over 1,100 students, serving as a supervisor to all and a friend to many. She retired from working at the WSU Alumni Foundation in January 2003. At her retirement, friends and colleagues thanked her for her many years of loyal service and inspiration, and honored her by creating the Marilyn Jeffers Call-A-Coug Endowed Scholarship, intended to help outstanding student employees of the Call-A-Coug Telephone Outreach Program.
Outside of family and work, Marilyn worked extensively on the genealogy of her family and on that of Herb’s family. She left behind file cabinets and boxes of letters, printed emails, genealogy newsletters, birth and death records, photos of headstones, much of the correspondence dating as far back as the late 1970s, before email and the internet allowed for an easier time to research family history. Marilyn worked diligently to trace her family line back to the Mayflower. Ultimately, she created a bound work of her ancestral line, dedicated it, and made multiple copies to share with her children, her siblings and their children. Documenting her life and history was a passion of hers. She created several scrapbooks throughout her life, including pictures from her childhood with her five siblings, their spouses, her nieces and nephews, her time in college, and her first year of marriage.
Marilyn loved to craft and sew. She took up quilting and created many gorgeous quilts. In 2015, she went through all of her quilts and sent one each to many of her nieces and nephews, along with a card, an out-of-the-blue gift for each. Her children, Rachelle, Brent and Stephen, and grandchildren, were also the lucky recipients of several of her quilts. Marilyn had beautiful penmanship and received compliments constantly on her gorgeous writing. It was really something else.
Marilyn and Herb were active square and round dancers, participating in dance lessons and formal dances with the Palouse Promenaders. They had an active and close friend group in square dancing, meeting regularly for group dinners, several camping trips throughout the summers, celebrated birthdays together, vacationed together, and much more. Her travels with her family and friends included cruises to Mexico and Alaska, trips to lots of states within the United States, and LOTS of trips to visit family in Kansas and Minnesota.
Marilyn loved being Grandma Marilyn to Audrey, Anja, Rory and Teddy. She was so very loving and kind, doting on them, reading with them, playing with them. She left behind piles of photos of them and scrapbooks documenting their time together.
Marilyn is survived by her husband, Herb, of Pullman; her children, Brent Jeffers, of Pullman; Rachelle (Mac) McLain, of Belgrade, Mont., and Stephen Jeffers, of Clarkston; grandchildren Audrey, Rory, Teddy and Anja; her younger brother, Gary Nelson, of Luck, Wis.; and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her younger sister, Beverly (Nelson) Youngberg; her older brother Joseph Nelson; her older brother Richard Nelson; her older sister, Violet (Nelson) Monson; and her first son-in-law, Timothy Pacchiano.
A celebration of life will be held at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 27 at Kimball Funeral Home. Arrangements have been entrusted to Kimball Funeral Home of Pullman. Online condolences may be made at kimballfh.com. Marilyn will be laid to rest at the Lincoln Cemetery, Lincoln, Kan.
