Marilyn Blitzstein Hromatko, 68, wife of the Rev. Dr. Wesley V. Hromatko, died of cancer Oct. 31, 2015 at Morningside Heights Care Center in Marshall, MN. She was born to Leland and Ellinore Blitzstein in Chicago on Dec. 17, 1946. She attended Bradwell Elementary and graduated from South Shore High in 1965. The city of Chicago gave her a citizenship award. Some of her most enjoyable experiences were at Camp Pinewood, MI.
Following graduation, she studied at Roosevelt University, then at Northern Illinois University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree. At NIU she had poetry — some in Latin — published in the literary journal Towers.
Marilyn received a master’s degree in English two years later, then studied at Kent State where she was a resident assistant during the campus disturbance there. Her role, as part of the residence hall team, was to help restore calm. Marilyn held a variety of jobs; her favorite was working at a summer camp in the Rockies. Marilyn loved the outdoors.
She enjoyed selling lamps, records, and books at Carson, Pirie Scott, & Company, where her grandmother, Emma Solomon, worked. 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 met the Rev. Dr. Wesley Hromatko, while he was serving First Unitarian Church of Hobart, IN. They were married September 17, 1978.
Religion interested her but preaching didn’t. She taught church school and was involved with the Central Midwest District religious education library. Marilyn was one of the organizers of the Tri-State UU Gathering. Toward the end of her life she returned to studying Biblical language. She was widely read in many subjects. She helped edit a physics book Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt. She was also an amateur radio operator and she had a great interest in the natural sciences.
In Illinois, Marilyn visited Abraham Lincoln sites museums and the homes of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and author Ernest Hemingway. She was a member of the Chicago Art Institute and active in Independent Voters of Illinois. Sometimes she would meet Wesley at Chagall’s “American Windows.” While the Hromatkos lived in New England, they visited many historic sites, such as Robert Frost’s home in Derry, N.H.; the Freedom Trail with Old Ironsides, Plymouth, MA, Starr Island, Strawberry Bank, and Mystic Seaport, home of the last wooden whaler. They also visited the House of Seven Gables, Longellow’s birthplace and Cambridge home, Herman Melville’s farm, William Cullen Bryant’s farm, President Adams’ boyhood home and farm, and Concord where Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau lived. Marilyn loved the woods by Walden Pond. In high school she kept a picture of Walden in her room.
She 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 was active in the Grange there. She said it was the longest time that she had stayed in any one place. They went to Illinois to visit and help her mother several times. She is survived by her husband; her sisters Rabbi Ann Folb, Arlington, VA; Bonniejean (Mike Gualandi) Gualandi, Arizona City, AZ; her niece Leah and nephew Joshua; and brother Alan (Ellen) Learner, Tyler,TX; and a number or cousins.
Services were held Nov. 4 at Chandler Funeral Home, Chandler, MN. Interment will be at Mount Pisgah Cemetery in Hanska, MN, at a later date.
Notes of remembrance may go to Wesley Hromatko at 752 121st St., Lake Wilson, MN 56151.