Marilyn Fox Roach

1937 - 2025

Marilyn Fox Roach

July 15, 1937 - August 15, 2025

Marilyn Fox Roach was raised on a peanut farm in Capron, Va., with her siblings, Betty, Trent, and Gear. She graduated from the University of Mary Washington and taught third grade in Appomattox, where she lived with friends and had a date every night. When she met the love of her life, Mel Roach Sr., she heard he was engaged. She went out with him anyway, because "maybe he has cute friends," an adage that has been passed down. The other is "you know when you know," which she did, right after he clarified that he was single, and intended to sweep her off her feet.

They married at Valley Forge Chapel in Philadelphia during the 1962 baseball season, and drove straight to Mel's Phillies game with the wedding party in tow. They returned to Richmond to raise their family on the Southside.

Marilyn is best known for her laugh and sense of humor. She often held court on her porch, where every visitor was offered lemonade. Bless your heart if she ever challenged you to a board game, because she cheated every time and called it "Capron rules."

She is survived by her two children, Libby Herring and Mel Roach Jr., their spouses Marion "Moose" Herring and Amanda Roach; brother-in-law, Hugh "Footsie" Roach; and her grandchildren, to whom she was "Mimi", Abigail, Molly, and Jacob Herring, and Carlin and Kristina Roach.

Marilyn is now reunited with her husband, siblings, and parents, Elizabeth Pamplin Trent Fox and John Elwood Fox, with whom she is undoubtedly playing croquet.