Marilyn Albright, age 86, died Sunday, April 24 at Delnor Hospital in Geneva, IL. She was a recent newcomer to Windsor Park catered living in Carol Stream, after nine years' residence at The Holmstad retirement community in Batavia.

Marilyn Shirley Gustafson Albright was born October 30, 1929, the day after the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. She was the second child of J. Morris and Margaret Gustafson of Winnetka, Illinois; the family later moved to Skokie and then to Wheaton. To be thrifty, they picked quantities of wild strawberries, sewed their own clothes, and used umbrellas inside their car with the leaky roof.

Marilyn had in common with Shirley Temple the same age and the same naturally curly hair. Ordered by a doctor to gain weight during childhood, Marilyn developed a lifelong aversion to chocolate malts. Drawing, painting, and music were her specialties – especially clarinet and piano, even the timpani and vibraharp. As a member of the Youth for Christ marching band playing her clarinet, she occasionally was drum major and twirled the baton too.

After two years at Wheaton College, Marilyn transferred to and graduated from National College of Education (now National Louis University), and was hired as a kindergarten teacher in Villa Park. One afternoon while playing badminton in her backyard, her next-door neighbor introduced her to his cousin from California, Ed Albright, and the two were married April 4, 1953, in College Church, where they remained faithful members and staunch supporters of missions. One of the first items that Ed bought Marilyn for their new home was a Lyon & Healy organ, a treasure that was still in her living room at Windsor 63 years later.

Marilyn raised six children, neatly arranging their birth order as three boys and then three girls. Then in addition to their own birth children, Ed and Marilyn opened their home to 22 children through the Evangelical Child and Family Agency, caring mainly for infants waiting to be adopted. Her soprano voice could often be heard singing soothing lullabies, especially "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" and "Precious Jewels." In recent years, she compassionately combined her love for babies and knitting into making 300 warm caps for premature newborns as a Delnor Hospital volunteer.

During the 1960s, she ran the Mar-Lyn Knitting Nook out of her home, and could fix any customer's knitting mistake. Her handwork included countless sweaters, scarves, hats, mittens, even dresses; and also as an expert seamstress, she sewed many of her own and her children's clothes, and later, dresses for her granddaughters. Her grandchildren were swaddled as infants in baby blankets that Grandma lovingly knitted. Her home was decorated with her needlepointing, crocheting, tatting, and cross-stitching. When oldest son Ed went off to college, Marilyn tried her hand at making him a quilt out of abundant fabric scraps, and found the passion that lasted until the end of her life. Every one of her children and several grandchildren and nieces and nephews own at least one of her quilts. Residents of The Holmstad in Batavia, where Marilyn and Ed lived from 2006 to 2015, eagerly looked forward to her quilt displays and the raffled quilt made each year by the quilting group there. She also taught quilting classes for the Wheaton Park District for many years. Income from completing other people's unfinished quilts was used to support missions overseas.

Although Marilyn's favorite place was not the kitchen, she baked the best coffee cake ever—a recipe that continues to be passed down through the generations. Having lots of kids made playing board games easy, and Mom was famous for winning Monopoly—ruthlessly—with the same game board she'd had since childhood. She also excelled at word games and crossword puzzles, and there was always a challenging jigsaw puzzle she was working on, often refusing to look at the box cover for help.

The family traveled often within the United States, with favorite spots in Yosemite, Death Valley, and Hawaii. But Marilyn surprised them all when one summer she signed up the family to travel down the Colorado River rapids in rubber rafts, sleeping in paper sleeping bags on spontaneously chosen shores. Barely clad guides, fresh cougar tracks, and sandy pancakes were a far cry from even the cheap hotels that had been standard fare.

Other travels included Marilyn and son Dick touring western Europe as members of the Chicagoland Chorale. When her parents went to Kenya as short-term missionaries, Marilyn took her three daughters and visited for a month. She, Ed, and youngest daughter, Barb, stayed with Dick when he was a missionary in both Papua New Guinea and the Philippines for extended periods, making a side trip to New Zealand. Marilyn loved to sit in the sun. Frequent visits to Florida after her parents retired there and her back patios at her different homes facilitated this. Her favorite chair at Windsor Park was by the balcony door of her southern view.

Marilyn was preceded in death seven months ago by her husband of 62 years, Edward H. Albright. She is survived by sisters Dorothy Anderson of Grand Rapids, MI, and Marjorie (David) Elowson of Bradenton, FL; children Edward (Deanna) Albright of Golden, CO; Dick (Roslyn) Albright of Winfield, IL; David Albright of Huntington Beach, CA; Nancy (Robert) Nehmer of Winfield, IL; Marilou Cook of St. Paul, MN; Barbara (Chad) Hinds of Plano, TX; 14 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

A visitation will be held on Friday, May 6, from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Hultgren Funeral Home, 304 N. Main St, in Wheaton, IL. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, May 7, at 11:00 a.m. at College Church , 332 E. Seminary, in Wheaton, IL. Interment will be held at Wheaton Cemetery at roughly 1:30 p.m.

Memorials may be directed to the Evangelical Child and Family Agency , where Ed had served on the board and Marilyn had volunteered in the office after being boarding parents. Checks may be made out and mailed to the Evangelical Child & Family Agency, 1530 N. Main Street, Wheaton, IL 60187.