Marilyn Raus Williams

Marilyn Raus Williams, beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, wife, friend, Christian and aunt passed away at the age of 91 on August 8, 2024. Marilyn was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in May 1933 to parents, Roland and Gladys Raus. She grew up with an older sister, Jo and a younger brother, Jack.

Marilyn and her siblings were children of the Great Depression. The family moved to where her father was able to get a job. Marilyn had vivid memories in her childhood of hungry men coming to the kitchen door in the freezing cold begging for food in exchange for work and a place to hide from the cold. Due to this experience, Mom never took food or clothes for granted, never paid full price for anything and every meal was made from scratch provided she could buy the ingredients for a good price or grow them herself.

During her childhood, her family lived in Cleveland, Ohio, Charleston West Virginia and then moved to Galveston, Texas which seemed like paradise after the cold of Ohio.

During WWII, when Marilyn was 10, her family was relocated from Galveston to Oakridge, Tennessee so her father could work as an engineer on the Manhattan Project. Marilyn always spoke of the adventure of living in the ‘city behind the fence’ fondly and remembered that it was a city where everyone was equal no matter where they came from. Houses were assigned based on the size of the family so the only way a family had a bigger house was if they had more kids. As soon as the war ended, the family moved back to Galveston where Marilyn started at Ball Highschool as a freshman.

Her family loved Galveston! Her dad loved to hunt and fish on the East Side and would frequently ‘volunteer’ Marilyn to go fishing with him and she would have to get up and ride in the small boat and fish in the very early hours on Galveston Bay. As a young child, she always loved to ride her bike up and down the streets and it wasn’t unusual for her to ruin multiple bikes when she would accidentally crash into parked cars.

In 1947 while attending Ball High School, all the windows in her classroom blew shut and the room shook when Texas City exploded. She and her classmates evacuated the building and stood in the parking lot to watch a mushroom cloud rise over Texas City as ashes blew into their hair. Then they walked to Broadway boulevard to watch the ambulances go past.

Following her graduation from Ball High School, she attended Sam Houston State University and graduated with a Biology degree with a minor in English.

After returning to Galveston and working as a Lab Tech in John Sealy hospital, Marilyn met a young medical student Drew D. Williams. They fell hard and Drew proposed after 1 date. They eloped (to her mother’s dismay) in June 1958 and had their first child, Leslie, 9 months and 3 days later in Galveston. The early years of their marriage were full of adventure as Drew worked to complete his medical school and residency while also being drafted into the Navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This resulted in them living in various areas of the country while Drew moved to different military bases. They lived in Seattle, Washington (where Cindy was born), Dallas, Texas (where Matt was born) as well as Maridian, Mississippi. They eventually returned to Galveston where Drew completed his education (where Amy and Jennifer were born). Drew began his private practice in Baytown and Marilyn focused her energy on raising five children.

Marilyn had a gift for creating a warm, welcoming home. She was an avid cook, gardener, reader, camper and loved to visit with family and friends. She was also a ceramic artist, pet lover, and bird watcher. She was a true home body and created the most idyllic home life for her husband and children. She worked in the yard/garden, cooked amazing home cooked meals every day. She baked and decorated cakes for birthday parties, took kids to school, had yearly Raus family ‘get-togethers’ with nieces and nephews with lots of card games and good food, and had yearly Williams camping trips over Thanksgiving.

If you knew Marilyn, you knew that she was always wanting to make sure that you had something to eat or drink and that you were comfortable. If you were coming to visit, she would call you days ahead of time to find out what you wanted to eat. If you just dropped by, she would fix something for you since she always had good leftovers or something ready to cook. She started a tradition of cooking birthday meals for all of her kids and grandkids. Matt always wanted shrimp, Cindy loved chicken pot pie, etc. Over time, with so many kids and grandkids, she had built up a backlog that she couldn’t keep up with. The night before our birthday, Mom would bake our favorite cake and would surprise us with the finished cake the next morning. We loved it.

Faith was important to Marilyn and her family. We always went to church and the Sunday lunch she prepared and served afterwards was legendary.

Mom had many lifelong friends the Sandlins, Jacksons, Carters, Ariscos, Dunnams, Lesters, and many more who they stayed in touch with for many years.

There were lots of funny stories and several rumors about Marilyn. One story involved her dancing on the tables at Pat Obrien’s in New Orleans on a vacation with her girlfriends – we are not sure how true that story was but it was fun to tease her about it.

Now, Marilyn has gone on to another adventure. She can remember everything and has no pain. We know that she is in a better place but we are all missing her facial expressions, cooking, advice, and love.

We are thankful and blessed to have had her in our lives.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Drew, parents Roland and Gladys Raus, and sister Jo Wren.

She is survived by her 5 children: Leslie Williams, Cindy Earles and her husband Ronald, Matthew Williams and his wife Monica, Jennifer Salcetti and her husband Blake, and Amy Lenertz and her husband Gary. She is also survived by her 11 grandchildren: Travis Earles and his wife Angelina, Jason Earles, Shannon Earles, Nicole Williams, Andrew Williams, Aaron Williams, Braden Lenertz, Tori Lenertz, Isabella Salcetti, Nicholas Salcetti, and Adam Salcetti as well as her 3 great-grandchildren: Wyatt, Walker, and Wren Earles.