Marilyn Denise Smith's Obituary
On January 20, 1955 in San Diego, California Marilyn Denise Thompson-Smith entered this world as the fifth of six children born to Delores Lincoln Thompson and Jodie Thompson.She was sure-footed throughout the steep individual path given to her. Marilyn was graced for her trek with a balance of fierce individuality, creativity and reliability. These characteristics emerged when she was a young girl through her avid but polar opposite interests in the arts and the game of football. At Knox Elementary School she earned first chair as a violinist in the orchestra and played after-school tackle football games with her brothers. Later, as a young mother, she would make her sons’ clothes and, then, give them hair-cuts with the same scissors that had fashioned their clothes. Throughout her life, Marilyn was an ardent reader of modern English literature, especially speculative fantasy. There was no bigger fan of the Harry Potter series. Neither was there a bigger fan of the San Diego Chargers– in whose honor she had an entire room of her home decorated. Marilyn was not just a patron of art and sport. Her passionate participation for both shaped her way in life. In 1973, Marilyn graduated Morse High School and then married Jeffrey Smith, the manager of her R&B group, Brown Sugar. To this union were born two sons, Conan Lamar Smith, born in 1974 and Marklin Delano Smith born in 1977. Throughout her central role as a mother, Marilyn continued her passion for the arts and for football and shared them with her sons. After long days of work to support them, she would bring the young boys to her local San Diego theater rehearsals where she became a fixture performing in numerous productions including starring roles in “Ain’t Misbehavin” and For Colored Girls Only, which each showcased her stupendous second soprano voice. On those theater sets, her sons would eat the dinners she had packed for them in advance and where she always demanded they do their homework while fellow cast members followed her example by also chiding the boys to finish their school assignments. Marilyn’s voice also rang out in choral groups in Philips Temple, CME. Even with such a full schedule, her sons’ friends, even now, remember Marilyn as one who kept an immaculate home. Somehow, Marilyn also found time to be an enthusiastic team mom for the Skyline Tigers Pop Warner football team. Her passion for football took root and flowered in her son Conan and that for the performing arts flowered in her son, Marklin. Her example of just doing what needs to be done may be her greatest gift to them. Of her sons, Marilyn once remarked to a friend, with deliberate slowness, “They are the best representatives of me.” After thirty years of service, Marilyn retired in December, 2012 from the Naval Satellite Operations Center, Special Operations Command. Near the end of that career, she immensely enjoyed the travel and learning she was afforded by her acceptance into and completion of that organization’s Aspiring Leader Development Program. However, just listening to Marilyn’s melodious speaking voice on a phone greeting or message was a treat. — Marilyn lived with fierce independence and dignity; rarely, if ever, complaining about hardships. Even when her sons had left her nest, Marilyn would work second jobs in the fall just so she could provide the holiday gifts she had in mind for her family. After emerging from a week-long coma that was induced in-hospital to reduce swelling in an unrelated illness about a year before her passing, Marilyn awoke and immediately began singing the reggae lyrics, “We’re jammin’ in the name of the Lord” with hands bouncing from side to side and then said, “Where are my car keys?” She worked so hard for that black turbo-powered Saab that she flew around in; the sports car made for women with airplane technology and to which she affixed her special order license plate reading, “It’s a Jet.” On December 17, 2012, Marilyn Denise Thompson Smith completed her mission and flew away. Marilyn Denise Thompson-Smith was predeceased by her parents, Jodi and Delores Thompson. She is survived by two sons, Conan Smith, and Marklin Smith of San Diego California; four grandchildren, Imahni Smith, Conan Deshaun Smith, and Nyomi Smith all of San Diego, California, and Ormead Smith of Ketchikan, Alaska; one sister, Valicia Jackson, of San Diego, California; four brothers, Ronald Thompson, of Tucson, Arizona, Donald Thompson of Las Vegas, Nevada, Robert Thompson of Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Jodie Thompson, Jr., of Las Vega,s Nevada, and a host of beloved nieces, nephews, and dear friends.
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