Marilyn and Dorothy

They were two of a kind, joined at the hip, two peas in a pod. Name your metaphor, and it likely describes best of friends Marilyn Revelle and Dorothy Nelson, who passed away one week apart in February after lifetimes of friendship, community service and fun.

Marilyn and Dorothy were two of the finest people I’ve known in my nearly 41 years in Lovell – women of distinction, church and community leaders and friends to many. They were two great ladies who cared about others and served in many capacities, all while having great fun.

They knew how to live.

Sometimes you hear of a man or wife passing away shortly after their spouse dies, and that may well apply to some very good friends, as well. Marilyn passed on Tuesday, Feb. 18, and Dorothy fell at the memory care facility in which she lived near Dallas that very day and passed one week later.

I think they had a pact to follow each other to the gates of Heaven, where they are no doubt stirring things up. As Marilyn’s son-in-law Kevin Parker put it during his excellent eulogy during her service last Friday, quoting his son Derek, “The two of them are now happily together again in Heaven, but I can only hope that they won’t get arrested up there.”

Mrs. Revelle, as she was known by the hundreds of first-grade students she taught over the years in Lovell (and two years before that in Cowley) was described to me as a teacher who would go above and beyond to help her students succeed, giving personal lessons to a boy badly burned in a fire or traveling to the home of a girl with cancer to help her keep up. She treated her students to fine candies at Christmastime, Halloween or Valentine’s Day, and she had a heart of gold. If she knew something was going on in a student’s family life, she would make sure that student got a little bit of extra help and attention.

She was organized and made learning fun, truly enjoying her career as a teacher, for instance working before the school year began to decorate her classroom and make colorful bulletin boards. She was said to make learning interesting for her students and worked to connect with each child.

Marilyn served her church and her community through various civic organizations and was named Citizen of the Year by the chamber of commerce in 2005.

As for Dorothy, whoa, Nelly, she was a force of nature in our community. She simply knew how to get things done through persistence, planning and persuasion. She was an active member of the town council and later the senior citizens center board, and she cared deeply about the town and how the community looked, constantly on the lookout for unsightly weeds or junk cars.

Dorothy always wanted an amphitheater in town and worked on getting a facility built when she was on the council. I think it would be fitting to name the new amphitheater at Armory Park in her honor when it is completed this spring.

She was a proofreader at the Chronicle for many years with another good friend, Dorothy Bush, and she was thorough and attentive to the task. She was a great colleague at the paper, and until the day she moved to Texas, she volunteered to come in and help.

In short, Dorothy was a ball of energy.

Now as to the antics, I can’t report a lot here, but suffice it to say, Marilyn and Dorothy and their husbands Cliff and Rich knew how to have fun. Certain objects might show up in friends’ yards – or inside their front door, and a certain kind of trick-or-treating might be conducted. She always said that Lovell changed over the years, became less fun, but Dorothy was able to make her own fun through sheer friendliness, a delightful spirit and a zest for life.

I don’t think I’ve known anyone else like her or ever will.

Two great ladies are now together in Heaven with their husbands and no doubt having a grand time. They simply made many lives better and will be missed. Rest in peace, Marilyn and Dorothy.