My Genealogy Home Page:Information about Marilu Holley
Marilu Holley (b. April 05, 1929, d. June 01, 1999)
Notes for Marilu Holley:Marilu Holley Rauen was an artist,homemaker, world traveler, beloved mother of eight children.
Excerpts from Eulogy for Marilu Holley Rauen
...Mom was an accomplished artist and a homemaker extraordinary. Other women call themselves homemakers because they stayed at home...Our mom created our home for real, from the inside out. She designed every room herself with impeccable taste. She upholstered the furniture, hung the wallpaper, made the bedspreads, drapes and upholstery to match, needle-pointed the pillows, painted the walls and designed and planted lovely gardens.
She filled our home with magic. Her songs and bedtime stories always stirred our imaginations. Her art told many more stories about nature and travel to faraway lands. We will never forget our breakfast room on June Street where she painted a mural of the most enchanted forest. It was filled with trees, ferns and flowers in amazing detail. If you looked really closely you would find eight tiny fairies hidden among the rocks, streams and trees. We spent many happy hours imagining all kinds of adventures for the fairies in that enchanted forest. It was a shame to have to move from there,but our family kept growing and we had to move on to the Ross more house. Our "Tara" of Hancock Park. We found other kinds of magic there. One summer mom painted the inside ceiling of our pool house like a big striped circus tent. She was so creative!
The houses grew with the family population. We started out in the Fifties on Crestway Drive in View Park Area, where mom and dad designed and built their own dream ranch style house house. We moved to June Street in Hancock Park when Tim came and then... oops Paula came and we were four. I remember once, while we were living there, at June Street, seeing my mom getting dressed and guessing that she was pregnant again. Mom said not to tell her mom (Gammo) because she thought she would get mad because Gammo said she shouldn't have more babies. I got to know the secret for a while and that was really fun and special. A few more babies and we moved again to the big house on Rossmore. When we began to leave home mom and dad moved to Pasadena to their beautiful Normandy style cottage. Of all four houses mom and dad lived in I think this was moms favorite. Mom and dad enjoyed living in this happy home for over 23 happy years.
Mom not only was an artist, who loved to work in oils, charcoals and acrylic paints, she was also an avid art lover and critic. She visited museums all over the world and she volunteered for many years as a docent at the LA county museum of art. She also loved travel and adventure and often painted the far away places she visited, to all our delight.
She drew and printed her Christmas cards herself every year. As the family grew, she added us onto the cards until there were eight of us. She then continued to send them every year till each one of us had left home and the card was down to Dana and Sammy, our dog. What dedication and talent! The last five or so cards featured my baby sister Dana growing up into the beautiful woman she has become. Some years mom barely made the deadline, and this caused some anxiety for us all. But it always got done in enough time....though a few years we were relieved the anticipated masterpiece made it out by New Years. I don't know how she did it.
Mom was always practical, fiercely independent and feisty. She wasn't particularly religious, but had her own pragmatic spirituality. Sure,she got us to mass on Sundays, but her real religion seemed to be more practical and earthy. I think she experienced God the most when she was outside gardening or painting. Perhaps she inherited her love for Mother Nature from her mother and her Cherokee ancestry. In any case, I like to think she passed some of that wise spirituality on to us. Dad says she prayed every night for her children till the very end.
Mom was so smart; brilliant as a matter of fact. She was a whiz at crossword puzzles and had a passion for playing bridge at a very early age. She could beat us all at Scrabble, and in fact beat the pants off me and a friend just a few weeks ago when she was not feeling well at all. Her smarts were humbling. She also loved to read and read at least two books a week...
Mom made sure we knew how to have fun. She gave us all swimming lessons when we were only a few months old so we were "pool safe". Our trips to the Jonathan Beach Club and Newport Beach in the summers were what summers were all about. We all could swim before we could walk. And when we learned to walk, she made sure we learned how to ski. Ski lessons for all..While mom and dad partied on the slope and off! Great memories of trips to Snow Summit in Big Bear and Thanksgivings at Mammoth Mountain...
Holley Rauen
June 4, 1999
More About Marilu Holley and Patrick Thomas Rauen:
Marriage: September 17, 1949, Los Angeles, California.
Children of Marilu Holley and Patrick Thomas Rauen are:
- +Michael Ray Rauen, b. May 09, 1951, Long Beach, CA291.
- +Holley Diane Rauen, b. October 17, 1952, Long Beach, CA291.
- Timothy Thomas Rauen, b. May 29, 1954, Long Beach, CA291.
- +Paula Suzanne Rauen, b. December 04, 1955, Long Beach, CA291.
- +Maggie Rauen, b. February 19, 1958, Los Angeles, California291.
- +Elena Ann Rauen, b. October 22, 1959, Los Angeles, CA291.
- +Patricia Kathleen Rauen, b. November 13, 1962, Los Angeles, California291.
- +Dana Marie Rauen, b. November 13, 1967.