Marilyn Keen Takaro

1927 - 2014

Marilyn Keen

Takaro

Asheville - 3/9/1927-2/1/2014

Marilyn Takaro passed away on February 1, 2014, after a short illness, at the CarePartners Hospice and Palliative Care John F. Keever, Jr. Solace Center, in Biltmore. She was a resident of Asheville since 1957.

She was born Marilyn Anne Keen, on March 9, 1927, in Algona, Iowa, the youngest of three children of Roy J. Keen and Hazel Fellows Keen. She graduated from Algona High School and from Saint Marys School of Nursing, which is affiliated with the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota; she became a Registered Nurse in 1949.

On April 3, 1949, she married Timothy Takaro, who was finishing his residency in general surgery at the Mayo Clinic. In 1951, they moved to Swannanoa, N.C., where her husband worked at the Oteen VA Hospital (later the Asheville-Oteen VA Medical Center). They spent three years, from 1954 to 1957, in India, where her husband was a medical missionary under the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.

Marilyn and Tim moved to the Kenilworth neighborhood in Asheville upon their return from India, and there they raised four children: Thomas Michael (of Houston, Texas), Martha Irene (of Portland, Oregon), Timothy Keen (of Vancouver, British Columbia) and Mark Christopher (of Berkeley, California).

In 1973 Marilyn resumed her nursing career, working full-time for 11 years at Mission Hospital. Upon retirement, she and Tim traveled extensively, all over the world.

In addition to her husband and her children, she is survived by seven grandchildren and one Cairn terrier. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville, of which she was a member since 1958, or to the charity of your choice.