Marilyn Alice (Heiliger) McGinnis passed away on January 5, 2023, at age 83, in North Newton, Kansas.
She was born on May 20, 1939, in
Bremerton, WA. Her parents were Richard Clark Heiliger and Eva Mary (Byam) Heiliger. Marilyn grew up in Silverdale and attended Seattle Pacific College, in Seattle, Washington. She went on to attend Talbot Theological Seminary and much later Fuller Theological Seminary.
In 1971, she married Disney Imagineer George Forsythe McGinnis, in Glendale, California, and they had three children, Shana Marie McGinnis and twins Jonathan Reed (Megan) McGinnis and Richard Scott (Sonday) McGinnis.
Marilyn was an editor at Gospel Light Publishing, continuing on to write books Single, “Give Me a Child Until He’s Two (Then You Take Him Until He’s Four),” and “Parenting Without Guilt,” as well as articles for various magazine publications. She wrote Bible study guides and put together her husband’s writings into a book on his life.
Marilyn owned Heritage House Antiques, in Glendale, California. She taught adult Sunday school classes at Glendale Presbyterian Church and was a guest preacher in a few different Presbyterian pulpits in Southern California.
Marilyn thoroughly enjoyed writing and teaching, was a voracious reader, loved reading the Bible and praying for her family, travelling, hosting family for holiday dinners, a wonderful decades-long best-friendship with Rosa Hopkins, and time with her beloved husband, children, and grandchildren.
She is survived by her children and grandchildren through Scott and Sonday-Jonathan, Elise, and Evan, as well as her wonderful nieces and nephews and her daughter’s best friend, her “Seattle Daughter,” Fawn.
Marilyn was kind, gentle, thoughtful, giving, and had a spark in her life that was a delight to her friends and family. She will be greatly missed. (Service date/location TBD.)
