“Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.”
-Mitch Albom
Our beloved mother, grandmother, and friend, Marilyn Joyce Kernen, of Fillmore, passed away on Sunday, August 12, 2012.
Marilyn was born in Covina, California on October 15, 1929. She attended Clearwater Junior High, where she was always the perfect student, sitting in the front row, getting excellent grades. That was where she met the love of her life and her best friend, Bob Kernen, in the 8th grade, when he was sent to the front row for talking too much in the back of the class.
After graduating from high school, she spent several years working as a bank teller. She married Bob in 1956 and they had 51 beautiful years together before his death in 2007. After the birth of her first child, she quit her job at the bank and began her job as a full-time mother. Marilyn and Bob raised their family for several years in Costa Mesa, spent 10 happy years in Hemet, California, and then moved to Fillmore in 1981.
Marilyn had a wry sense of humor and loved late night TV, murder mysteries, black coffee, and family dinners on the weekends. She was the world’s best listener and any problem seemed easier to handle once it was talked over with her. She made Christmas and birthdays so special for her kids and grandchildren, and lived her life with quiet strength and dignity. We will miss her more than words can express, but we take comfort in the many memories we have of all the years we spent with her. We know she is reunited with Bob, and is now at peace.
Her husband, Robert Kernen, and mother, Marie Smith, preceded Marilyn in death. She is survived by her three daughters, Diane Smith (husband Tony) of Ventura, Joyce Davantzis, (husband Dean) of Los Osos, and Beverly Garnica (husband John) of Fillmore. Marilyn also leaves her six grandchildren; Natalie, Laura and Grace Garnica, Candice and Matthew Davantzis and Alex Munoz, her beloved sister and brother-in-law Carol and Jim Painter, and her three nephews, Scott, Paul and Darrin Walker.
A memorial service for Marilyn is scheduled for Saturday, August 25th, at 1:00 p.m. Skillin-Carroll Mortuary, 600 Central Avenue, Fillmore, California.