Marilyn (Blitzstein) Hromatko

Marilyn Hromatko,  68, of Lake Wilson, MN died on Saturday, October 31, 2015 at Morningside Heights Care Center in Marshall, MN.   Services will be at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, November 4 , 2015 at the Chandler Funeral Chapel in Chandler, MN.   Visitation will be one hour prior to the service.

Interment will be at Mount Pisgah Cemetery in Hanska, MN at a later date.

Marilyn Hromatko was born at Lying In Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, now a part of the University of Chicago Hospital on December 17, 1946 to Leland and Ellinore Blitzstein. She attended Bradwell Elementary and South Shore High in Chicago. Her class was 1965, although she graduated mid-year. During her school years, her most enjoyable experiences were at Camp Pinewood in Michigan, and she was thrilled when the city of Chicago gave her a citizenship award. Following graduation she started at Roosevelt University before transferring to Northern Illinois University where she received her B.A.  At NIU her poetry, some of it in Latin, was published in the literary journal Towers. As a student, she worked in food service. Marilyn received an M.A. in English two years later at Kent State. She was a resident assistant at the time of the campus disturbance there. She helped calm the situation as part of the administration.

Marilyn had a variety of jobs including those while in college. Among her favorites was working at a summer camp in the Rockies. Marilyn loved the outdoors. She sold lamps, records, and books at Carson, Pirie Scott, where her grandmother, Emma Solomon, worked. Marilyn enjoyed selling books and records. She was a Girl Scout executive in the Chicago area and later was a YWCA program director. Marilyn then studied at Meadville/Lombard Theological School and the University of Chicago. She always had an interest in religion but didn’t want to preach.

She taught church school and was involved with the Central Midwest District religious education library. Marilyn was an organizer of the Tri-State UU Gathering. Before her last illness she was back studying biblical language. She was widely read in many subjects. She helped with the editing of a physics book Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt. Among other things she was an amateur radio operator with a great interest in the natural sciences. She also enjoyed going to library book sales and trading books.

Marilyn married Wesley V. Hromatko, D. Min., on September 17, 1978 at 1st Unitarian, Hobart, Indiana. The Chicago Children’s Choir performed at their wedding

In Illinois, Marilyn visited Abraham Lincoln sites, museums and the homes of architect Frank Lloyd Wright and author Ernest Hemingway. She was at one time a member of the Chicago Art Institute. While she and Wesley lived in New England they visited many historic sites, including Robert Frost’s home in Derry, NH. They also visited the Freedom Trail with Old Ironsides; Plymouth, MA; Star Island; Strawberry Banke; Mystic Seaport, home of the last wooden whaler; poet Emily Dickinson's Amherst home; the House of Seven Gables; author Herman Melville’s farm; William Cullen Bryant’s farm; President Adams boyhood home & his farm, and of course, Concord where Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau lived. Best of all she loved the woods by Walden Pond.

Marilyn came to the farm at Lake Wilson in 1990 when she and Wesley decided that they should stay to help his parents, A.J. and Maybelle Hromatko. The farm became home for her. She said it was the longest time she had stayed in any one place. They did go to Illinois to visit and help her mother Ellinore Learner several times.

On October 31, Marilyn passed away at Morningside Heights in Marshall, MN at the age of 68. She leaves behind, her husband Wesley; sisters, Ann Folb, Arlington, VA and Bonniejean (Mike) Gualandi, Arizona City, AZ; brother, Alan (Ellen) Learner, Tyler, TX; niece Leah and nephew Joshua, cousins and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents.