Obituary of Merrilyn Williams

Merrilyn Williams was born in Kansas City, Kansas on March 16, 1936. She passed away in Tacoma on March 15, 2010. Merrilyn grew up in California–the daughter of one of the first set of pilot twins to fly for Howard Hughes who then owned TWA airlines. They were featured in one of the airlines ads. One of her fondest memories as a child was going with her parents to a party at the Hearst Castle and swimming in the grand pool overlooking the Coast. It wasn’t until she was older that she realized just how unique that experience was. Her parents bought a house in Los Angeles with an orange grove, which she loved. This was back when LA was still small enough you could live in the city and still feel like you were out in the country. Little Merrilyn loved to ride her bike down the empty streets. “Ride like the wind” as she would say. She often rode her bike to the stables where she kept her half Arabian horse. She loved that horse. Much of her spare time throughout her high school years was spent at the beach where she did a lot of California dreamin’–playing in the surf, swimming and of course laying in the sun. She met Roger Reid when she was 16. They eventually married, had four girls (one of whom she lost at birth). But, as many young marriages do, this one ended in divorce. During this trying time, she relied on her many good friends who helped to take care of her and her children. Then she met Carl Schoonhoven. Actually, she followed him and introduced herself because she liked the way he rode his hog. He looked really good on his Harley and she looked even better riding with him. They married. Carl was drafted and soon after they moved to Georgia. From there he was stationed at Ft. Lewis. The plan was to move back to LA when he served his time, but they ended up falling in love with the Pacific Northwest. True to her roots, she and Carl bought the old farmhouse that she loved till the end. The entire family embraced a back-to-basics lifestyle, which included growing their own food and raising chickens. Even had a horse in the backyard for a while. They were also very social and truly enjoyed the company of their friends who were always coming and going. Alas, Carl and Merrilyn divorced. Merrilyn was now a single mom and ended up becoming a cab driver, a career that supported her until she could no longer drive due to her emphysema–the disease that eventually took her life. She loved the camaraderie of her fellow cabbie friends and often talked about the many interesting people she drove from place to place. When she wasn’t driving, she lit up the nightlife in Tacoma barhopping and boogying the nights away. She was always fun and exciting to be around. As her partying years subsided, she grew even fonder of her home, which became her most loved companion. It was filled with the things she loved from her childhood, with memorabilia from her life in Tacoma, with ceramics she and her kids had made and fired in their backyard kiln, with posters and pictures, plates and books, tramp art and trinkets, all the cherished stuff that made her home a reflection of who she was. She had made macramé curtains, stenciled every room, she even took the time to turn her old home’s windows into faux leaded glass by meticulously applying silver tape to each pane. For many years, she and the family heated their home with a beautiful old wood stove that was also used for cooking and baking. She kept that old stove till the end even though she did eventually switch to gas heat and a small hot plate that sat humbly atop her beloved old stove. To keep her company, she always had classic rock music playing in the background, which was only and often interrupted by the sound of her CB radio, which was always on to monitor the world of her many cabbie friends day and night. Her second love was clothes. From vintage to contemporary, she filled her drawers and closets to overflowing–some just for the joy of having them around. Then there was her very close third love–her yard. What started with growing vegetables back in the day (all organic of course) became a full time obsession. As she settled in, this fondness for gardening grew to include her whole half-acre plot. She planted trees and shrubs, perennials and annuals, roses and clematis, poppies, peonies–all from her favorite local and mail-order nurseries. She eventually planted so much and attracted so many birds that her place was officially designated as a wildlife sanctuary. She was very proud of this and loved watching the birds feed, drink and bath in her many feeders and birdbaths. She made the most of her 74 years, but wasn’t ready to go. She left her friends and family with many stories to tell. One of the nurses at Orchard Park summed her up quite nicely–“she was a pistol”. Merrilyn was preceded in death by her parents, Julie, the baby she lost, her daughter Debbe, and her brother Larry. She is survived by daughters, Becky McNeil and Toot Reid, granddaughter Koreen Peterson and family, and her cousin Alice Ann. The family would like to thank and praise the wonderful team from Group Health Palliative Care and Hospice for all their care and support, her home healthcare providers, DSHS for everything they did to help her stay in the home she loved for as long as she could, and all of the many compassionate nurses, aids and social workers who took such great care of her at Orchard Park. The family encourages Merrilyn’s friends to raise a glass in her memory and share your stories in the guest book.