Marilyn Jean (Emery) Bilby passed away at her home in Eliot, ME, on Monday, May 25 th, 2026. She was 86.

Born in Saginaw, MI, on November 17, 1939, to the late Ira Fred Emery and Irene Ella (Terpening) Emery, Marilyn spent her childhood both in St. Louis, MI, and Freeport, TX, eventually sharing her parents with her sister, Sandra White, of Prescott Valley, AZ, and her brother, James F. Emery, late of Doniphan, Missouri.

While enrolled at Alma College, Marilyn met and dated James Keith Bilby, a handsome football player from Cadillac, MI. They were married on September 12, 1959, at Alma Methodist Church and honeymooned at Niagara Falls — back when everybody did.

In addition to teaching in the classroom for Saginaw County Public Schools for many years, Marilyn also served in administrative roles, creating regional curriculum and development tools for the schools, and implementing gifted and talented education programs for K-12 students. She was also proud of going back to school herself and earning a Master’s Degree in Education from Michigan State University.

Speaking of gifted and talented, Jim and Marilyn also found the quantity time and quality time to raise two amazing children: Laura Kay Bilby of Kittery Point, ME, and her younger, taller, and dashing little brother Michael Keith Bilby of San Ramon, CA. Who may or may not have edited that last line.

She encouraged her children to try everything… music, theater, sports, reading, shoveling the driveway, even if you didn’t feel like it on a Saturday morning. She lamented that raising children to be independent resulted in our unforeseen departures to opposite coasts, but that both provided excellent opportunities for visiting.

A few years after Jim passed away in 2007, Marilyn moved to Kittery, ME, for the next phase of life. She loved the New England history and scenery and took a shine to the Cape Neddick Light (aka the Nubble), which became her happy place. Anyone visiting her got a great trip out to York and, more often than not, a stop at Dunne’s for ice cream. Butter pecan, duh…

Marilyn lived a full life filled with loving family and friends, was an animal lover (equally of both dogs and cats, which somehow just seems wrong), and most importantly, practiced her Christian faith through the ebbs and flows in this world, caring for others whenever help was needed. Go rest high on that mountain.

Her children are so grateful for the excellent care that the family received in Marilyn’s final weeks from Cornerstone Hospice of Rochester, NH. Anyone who wishes to make a memorial contribution may consider doing so at cornerstonevna.org.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:4