Marily Southwood

Marilyn Southwood, 88, of Pekin, IL, passed away at 4:20 pm on Friday, June 9, 2023 at the John C. Proctor Endowment Home in Peoria, IL. Marilyn's parents were Kenneth and Clara (Burgard) Easley of Vermont, IL. Educated originally in a one-room schoolhouse near Ipava, IL, she was a graduate of Western Illinois University. Following her graduation, for a brief period, she was a school teacher in Cuba, IL. Following subsequent periods of employment for schools in Canton and Pekin, she spent many years as office administrator of the State Farm insurance agency of her husband, Richard L. Southwood, to whom she was married for 64 years until his death in February 2020.

She was also preceded in death by her sister, Frances Jean Azbell and brother, Kenneth Norman Easley.

Marilyn is survived by her sons Michael, Neil and Klayton, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Marilyn and her husband travelled extensively, having been to all 50 U.S. States, on recurrent multiple country cruises, to church sponsored trips to Guatemala to help build schools, and numerous trips to Europe. A devout Christian, Marilyn was a member of the First Christian Church of Pekin, IL. She was an avid reader, mostly of both well-known and lesser-known history and biographies. A descendent of Anne Hutchinson (a figure in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1635 to 1638), Marilyn had a great personal interest in genealogy, was instrumental in researching multiple lines of her family tree, and was a member of the Tazewell County Genealogy Society.

Services will be held on Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. at the First Christian Church in Pekin. Visitation will take place one hour prior to the services. Neither flowers nor gifts are requested, just the presence of those family and friends conveniently able to attend. However, memorials may be made in Marilyn’s memory to the John C. Proctor Endowment Home in Peoria, IL. Shawgo Memorial Home in Astoria has been entrusted with arrangements.