Marilyn E. Dillon

Marilyn E. Dillon

Marilyn E. Dillon, a Cincinnati native and an award-winning reporter and editor who mentored dozens of young journalists in her 30 years in the news business, died Friday, March 27, at her home on Long Beach Island, N.J.

Dillon was 64 and had recently been diagnosed with an inoperable lung tumor.

Three things topped Dillon's list of favorite things — a busy newsroom working a good story; happy hours or other celebrations with friends; and the year-round pursuit of sunny days and stunning sunsets on LBI, where she lived full-time since 2013 with Brian Horton, her husband of 37 years.

Dillon was editor of her high school paper at Ursuline Academy and went on to study journalism at Bowling Green State University, where she graduated in 1977.

She worked briefly at a suburban Cincinnati newspaper, interned as a reporter at the Cincinnati Enquirer, then joined the Toledo Blade's reporting staff. In 1979, she returned to the Enquirer, where she was a general assignment and courthouse reporter and an editor on the paper's metro desk.

After her marriage to Horton in 1983, she worked in Columbia University's Office of Public Information before returning in early 1985 to Cincinnati and the Enquirer, where she led the Kentucky bureau in sharpening its reporting and writing.

In 1987, Dillon became metro editor of The Courier-News in Bridgewater, N.J., where staff was being beefed up to launch a Sunday edition. She was eventually promoted to managing editor, leading the daily news operations, and served as the paper's first managing editor for online.

Dillon was revered by her staff as an exacting editor and top-flight newsroom manager. Under her leadership, the paper often broke exclusive stories, provided solid coverage of its area and won annual statewide newspaper association and corporate awards for the quality of its reporting.

In March 2007, Dillon suffered a multiple sclerosis flare and unrelated complications that left her hospitalized for seven months. She battled MS and other health issues, including long stays at hospitals and physical therapy facilities, with grit and good humor. Horton and Dillon chronicled her ordeal and the joys of their life together in a weekly blog, "Mar's Journey Back."

Dillon is survived by her husband; her mother, Royce, and a sister, Cynthia Dillon, both of Cincinnati; her brother, Bob Dillon, of Indianapolis; and a stadium-sized crowd of heartbroken relatives, friends and former colleagues.

A celebration of life will be planned after the coronavirus crisis subsides. She will be cremated and, some evening at sunset, when a west wind blows, her ashes will be scattered on the coast and carried out to the sea from LBI, a place she truly loved.