Marilyn Crossley was born on October 29, 1937 in Brooklyn, New York to her parents Jenny and Bernhardt Nelson. She had 6 brothers, Robert, Warren, Richard, Allen, Eugene, and Howard, all of whom predeceased her. Marilyn is survived by her husband, Tony, her children and their families: Christine and Mark Scales and son Nicholas Tabar; Connie Crossley and Mitch Huff and children Lauren, Maya, and Jordan; Kimball Crossley and Sarah Vespermann and daughters Elizabeth and Lulu; and Jennifer and Stephen Dantzler and children Sarah, Eric, and Emma and great grandchild Hannah. She has many nieces and nephews, and their children, from her six brothers, who were very special to her. They all love their Aunt Marilyn! She was raised in Brooklyn and loved the Brooklyn Dodgers, especially Gil Hodges and stayed in New York as a young adult with her first job at Leeds Luggage. She met Tony, her husband of 52 years, in New York. After the birth of her daughter, Jennifer, they moved to New Jersey. They spent the next 20 years in Bergen County, New Jersey making some tremendous lifelong friends. Marilyn was very active in their community including Wyckoff Reformed Church, the Newcomers Club, various book clubs, bridge club as well as many other organizations. During this time, Marilyn also received her Associate’s Degree from Bergen Community College as a paralegal. She was extremely proud of this degree, as she had grown up in a time when women were not encouraged to get a higher education. She always said that she loved learning and wished that she could have been in school forever.
In 2003, Marilyn and Tony moved to Houston, Texas to help Jennifer start a nonprofit for people with autism. Her passion to help Jennifer with this endeavor was much of her focus for the past 20 years. She was the Secretary of the Board for most of that time, until recently when her Parkinson’s Disease intervened. Marilyn had started as the school secretary and bookkeeper and was a true fixture. Everyone there truly loved her and she brought smiles to everyone’s faces. Towards the end she was our faithful document scanning queen and scanned thousands of documents with pride!
Marilyn and Tony spent decades of summers at Quaker Lake where she made many dear friends and many wonderful memories, including carnival, teaching aerobics in the club house, participating in mixed doubles tennis tournaments, and attending July 4th celebrations at the club house.
Marilyn was known for her love of show tunes, chocolate, knitting, macaroni and cheese, and all became aware of her huge heart. If you were one of the special ones to receive a baby blanket or scarf, you know what we mean. She was also the most loyal friend. Once her friend it was for life, and she would do whatever she could to support you. While in recent years Parkinson’s Disease robbed her of her independence, it never diminished her love for her husband and her family, her desire to sing “Oklahoma”, and her love of chocolate.
It should be no surprise that in lieu of flowers, we would like donations made to InspireND.org, formerly known as Including Kids, the autism nonprofit that Jennifer founded with the help of her parents 20 years ago. Her Celebration of Life will be Saturday, May 13, 2023, with visitation from 9-10 AM and service at 10 AM at Kingwood Funeral Home, followed by lunch at Jennifer’s house. For out-of-town guests, please contact Jennifer as we will be having a small reception Friday night.
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
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