Marian was born into the Czech community of Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of a bakery owner. She earned a B.A. from Creighton University, becoming a lifelong fan of the Jesuits. She met her sweetheart, Bert, at Grand Lake, Colorado, and they were married in 1950 on what she always said was the best day of her life. His work as a park ranger took them from the Rocky Mountains to Yellowstone, where she chased bears away from their outdoor refrigerator and learned to cook on a wood-burning stove.

Bert’s next career took them to Chicago and finally Virginia. There, she found her true calling as a teacher, first at Blessed Sacrament School and later at St. Anthony’s/Corpus Christi School in Falls Church, where she thrived for almost three decades, teaching countless students to solve for X and master quadratic equations. Teaching was her joy, not her job. There were no easy A’s in her class, but she delighted in her students’ victories. She always knew when they were struggling with a new concept, or when it was time to move on. She sponsored the Junior National Honor Society; served on the Diocesan math committee; and contributed to Designs for Excellence, sharing her time and talents across the Diocese.

From the pup tent she and Bert took on their honeymoon in the mountains, to the trailer that had a microwave, decades later (before her kitchen did), she and her family were never far from a camping trip to Trap Pond -- or to New England, the Grand Canyon, beloved Yellowstone or the driveway of the Jenkins home in Omaha, destination of annual pilgrimages. When their daughter went off to college, Marian and Bert would gas up the Jeep, stock the trailer and wander the highways and by-ways of the U.S. After losing her beloved much too early, Marian’s irrepressible spirit of adventure took her to Europe on numerous bicycle tours; to Poland to teach English, to Kenya, to the Holy Land, and to cooking classes in Sicily, as well as to India, the Philippines and Cambodia to visit her daughter.

Along the way, she served her deep faith in just about every way she could think of – meticulously washing and ironing altar linens, sewing banners, prayer group, Eucharistic Ministry, the ‘St. Matthew Society’, and many other ways. She is survived by her daughter, Laurie; son-in-law, Marco Carreon; and grandson Brendan. Marian now knows the greatest joy there is and is holding fast to the hand of her sweetheart who she has missed every day for more than two decades. If there’s grammar to be corrected in heaven, she’s taken care of it already.

In lieu of flowers, you may consider a donation to the Corpus Christi School Scholarship fund, in her name, care of Corpus Christ School, 3301 Glen Carlyn Rd, Falls Church, VA 22041.

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