Marilyn Edwards Harris Hutchinson Obituary (1931 - 2024)

Marilyn Edwards Harris Hutchinson died on July 29, 2024 of natural causes. She was born in Charlotte, NC on February 18, 1931 to Kenneth Harris and Dorothy Closson, and had three siblings: Patricia, Kenneth (“Bud”), and Eleanor. Her family frequented the chautauqua community of Lakeside, Ohio. Marilyn graduated from Hiram College in 1952 – where she was a cheerleader and homecoming queen and was part of the touring theater crew on the showboat Majestic where she met her eventual husband, Edward Charles Hutchinson. Their marriage lasted 69 years until Edward passed away in 2021. Marilyn had four children: Robert Karl Hutchinson, Douglas Alan Hutchinson, Janet Claire Hutchinson (Quilligan) and Bruce Clifford Hutchinson. She has three grandchildren – Jenny, Luke, and Karl, and one great-grandchild, Piper. Marilyn was always athletic – able to do cartwheels in her 60s, and hiked long distances. The Hutchinson household was all about the joy of learning and travel, with lots of books and long trips to every state. Pets abounded, with dogs, cats, horses, goats, birds, and various fish, rodents, and reptiles over the decades. Marilyn’s family lived in Kent, OH; Auburn, AL; Gainesville, FL; Ashe County, NC; and Edgewater, FL. Marilyn and Edward spent their final two decades at Oak Hammock in Gainesville. They were intrepid travelers, including a year working in China, and have visited forty countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, the South Pacific, and the Arctic. Marilyn taught school in Alachua County, Florida at Duval Elementary, and in the Ashe County North Carolina School system. She was an inspired teacher who deeply cared for her students – often helping them through difficult personal matters. Marilyn was an artist nearly every day of her life, whether decorating a birthday cake, teaching art to her students, painting watercolors (like her father, a renowned professional painter), or sewing and knitting. Her traditional sampler design graced the cover of a magazine after winning a national competition, and her stained glass was beautiful. She was an avid birdwatcher, gardener, and fisherwoman, was a strong swimmer, and has read thousands of books. Marilyn challenged authority all her life in her deep commitment to fairness and accountability – as principals and school board members, and the administrators of Oak Hammock learned. Marilyn was buried at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery next to her husband in a family celebration of a strong, intelligent, and beautiful woman who showed us all how to live in these interesting times. For the last thirty years, the charity that manifested Marilyn’s love of the natural world is Alachua Conservation Trust.