Marilyn Camden

Marilyn Lee (DeMoss) Camden, 84, of Kingwood, Texas passed away on November 18, 2025. Marilyn was born on September 29, 1941, in Enid Oklahoma to Arthur Monroe and Ida Myrtle (Boston) DeMoss.

She will be dearly missed and fondly remembered for her Love and compassion for family, nursing, travel, and gardening.

Marilyn attended Southard Schools in Southard, Oklahoma, until she was a junior. She then transferred to Canton High School, where she was homecoming princess and salutatorian. She attended Carlton school in her seventh grade due to a district dispute, resulting in a unique experience of all 8 grade levels in a one-room schoolhouse with one teacher. Marilyn attended Enid General Hospital School of Nursing and graduated as an R.N. in September 1962. She met James Lawrence "Larry" Camden, a student at Spartan Aeronautical School in Tulsa, while she was taking nursing courses. They were married on September 2, 1962. They moved to Houston, where Larry gained employment with TTA (United) Airlines. They had four children and eventually divorced in 1985.

Marilyn once wrote, "My childhood is a pleasant experience to recall. I was lucky enough to have an older brother, Dean, and a younger one, Doyle. We were always a close-knit family. The fact that we were so far from other people made it necessary that we were also playmates. We enjoyed the freedom of living out on the farm. We invented our own games…I usually had a pet on the farm that I spent hours with. I had a calf that I trained to ride like a horse. I had dogs, cats, mice, and rabbits. I can still remember my father bringing a rabbit to me tucked in his overalls for me to take care of. My mother made all my clothes, and I can recall going to town when she sold eggs at the granary and picking out the sack of feed that would be my next dress. Washing clothes was a full day's work, involving obtaining water from an outdoor well. My fondest childhood memories are the dolls my mother bought me. She made lots of clothes for them, and my father made me a wooden box to keep them in."

Her father humorously encouraged her to continue her education in nursing; he promised her a plot of land to manage if school did not work out. She went on to have a great career in nursing, starting as a lead floor nurse and continuing nursing for 52 years. In the last 6 years of her nursing career, she served as the Director of Cancer Center and Hospice at Northeast Medical Center in Humble, Texas.

She was an excellent cook, learning from her mother as they prepared homemade meals every night. Marilyn has collected over several thousand recipes that are still in her archive. She was an excellent gardener who was apprenticed on the farm and mastered her home acreage, which was covered with additional trees, gardens, and landscaping, creating phenomenal beauty. She enjoyed frequent travel with her brother, Dean, and his wife/bestie, Marilyn. They had many great trips together as they traveled across the United States, often stopping at historical war memorials along rustic highways.

Spending time at Surf Side Beach was a decade of annual events, each beginning with several nights spent gathered in her home. The crowd got a little bigger each year. Her big brother took the family photos, and sometimes they were photoshopped for those who missed the picture. She enjoyed watching the pelicans swoop down for fish from the Gulf, hours of memorizing the surf's ebb and flow, and thanking God for the opportunity to be a witness to His glory. "It makes you feel small in the larger picture."

She loved her four kids, named them from the Bible: David, Debra, Diane, and Doug. They all loved her greatly and saw her as the ultimate mom. She loved family visits. Marilyn had an extended family: Rhonda Maddox, Savannah Bartlett, and Grace Crouch. Who treated her as a mother and grandmother. She enjoyed visiting and watching them all grow up. She treasured visits from her niece, Michele, and the children, Holland, Mallory, and Jake.

No matter how busy work life was for Marilyn, she carved out time to fly to KS or MI to visit David, Mesha, and her grandson, Jarod, to cook with him, apple-picking, and watch endless hours of SpongeBob (that's Love). She never failed to make a photo album of each trip and sent it after her return home.

Marilyn took a monumental trip after her hemiplegic stroke to ride a train with her grandson Dylan. The train ride had been anticipated for two years, during which they watched train videos and built train sets. Until it finally happened on a train across Canada, shared with her best friend, Johnnie Jarrels, and Debra, as they traveled from Jasper to Prince Rupert to experience a wilderness journey through British Columbia on the Rupert Rocket.

Marilyn suffered a stroke on Thanksgiving in 2016. For seven years, she was cared for at home by her daughter, Debra. Over that time, more than 200 caregivers assisted with her medical needs, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and in-home support. These dedicated professionals worked skillfully and compassionately to help her regain her ability to walk, use her arm, and speak. She endured her journey with cycles of progress and setbacks. Throughout it all, Marilyn mainly remained positive and always welcomed her care teams. When asked in 2025 who her favorite caregiver was, she replied, "All of them." In her final hours, she prayed with Altus Chaplain Mark. Marilyn never lost her faith or her Love for others. She passed away peacefully and is now joyfully in the presence of our Savior.

Marilyn is preceded in death by her parents- Arthur Monroe and Ida Myrtle DeMoss, Diane Camden (daughter) and Michele Dunham (niece), and former husband James Lawrence Camden.

Marilyn is survived by brothers and SIL: Dean and Marilyn DeMoss; Doyle and Mary DeMoss. Children: David (wife)Mesha Camden, Debra Davis (Camden), Douglas Camden and "adopted" Stacey Flowers. Grandchildren: Jarod Camden and Dylan Davis. Family members: Jake Dunham, Mallory and Steven Molina, Holland and Katy Von Rosenburg, Michael and Jennifer DeMoss, Landree DeMoss, Logan and Haley DeMoss, Levi DeMoss, Lori DeMoss, Robert and Valerie, Matthew and Mason DeMoss.

Memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, December 6, 2025 at the Canton Christian Church with Reverend Michael Grigsby officiating with inurnment to follow at Canton Cemetery, Canton, Oklahoma.