Marilyn Ann Devaud

We all heard stories about Saugatuck, Michigan. This was where Aunt Jean jumped up and down on one foot while on a raft that Mom pulled across the river. Grandma Nathan would take care of her daughters all week until Grandpa Nathan took the ferry from Chicago every week-end like all the other fathers. Those summers were hot in the city.

Mom was born in Chicago May 18, 1927 to David Nathan and Edna Hattie Bertha Brauner Nathan. Her parents eloped because her father was Jewish and her mother was not. Aunt Jean, Mom’s little sister by 7 years, exposed the secret inadvertently at a family dinner. That Jeannie Peanut!

To all of us cousins, it seemed like all the fun was in Michigan. We would go to Union Pier to pick blueberries, eat egg salad sandwiches, stay with Grandma and Grandpa Nathan in their little house, and run up and down the dunes at Warren Dunes State Park. We also bought lots of candy at Kopeck’s. And the card games! Mom never liked to play cards, but Grandpa Nathan did. We played endless rounds of Kaluki at night and used pennies to play each hand.

Mom met Dad, Jean Daniel Devaud, in Wood River, Illinois, both on their first teaching jobs in a high school there. Mom was a PE teacher, and Dad taught Art. Both were teachers all their lives and both attended the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana. Mom stayed in a nice sorority, and Dad was a poor Art student.

Mom taught on and off while my sister Annie and I were growing up. We always had an adult in our house when we’d get home from school. Mom didn’t want us to feel alone despite living in Villa Park, a small safe suburb of Chicago. Millie, our next door neighbor, made so much money from caring for us that she bought a Mustang! She also made excellent after school snacks. Mom stayed in contact with Millie for a long time.

In 1974, Mom and Dad bought property in northern Wisconsin after an exhaustive search. Mom had been a counselor at Camp Nicolet and Dad a dishwasher at Eagle Waters in nearby Eagle River. The focus of their lives shifted from Illinois to Wisconsin. We all built a Chalet together with Grandma and Grandpa Devaud’s help. Our cousins, the Stechs, helped too. We all have great stories from that time in our lives. There was the famous story of Danny, Steve, Annie, and I leaving our youngest cousin Linda whittling a stick by a campfire while she got bit by a dog. Mom and Aunt Jean were not happy with that.

Mom became a famous story teller just like our Grandma Nathan, also known for her wild stories exaggerating all kinds of details to make stories more compelling. And now I have told the story of my wonderful Mom, Marilyn Ann Devaud.

She is survived by her sister, Jean Stech, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Annie and I live in the Chicago area. Mom has 5 nieces and nephews all over the country who miss her very much. She also has 4 grandchildren who are already telling stories about that ole Grandma. Their names are Nathan Klemundt Devaud, Marco Antonia Devaud, Claire Klemundt Devaud, and Renee Justice Picard.

Memorial contributions may be made in Marilyn's name to Phi Delta Kappa, P.O. Box 13099, Arlington, VA 22219.