Marianne Jensen Vilbig, a journalist and homemaker, died in her sleep after a long illness on June 6. She was 81.
Marianne was born July 26, 1925 in Phoenix, Ariz., the daughter of Simon Jensen, of Denmark, and Dorothy Leahy, a first generation Irish American. Marianne was raised in Tyrone, Pennsylvania, where she studied violin and during World War II, developed a lifelong interest in following the news. After a year at Hood College, she transferred to Penn State, from which she graduated with a degree in journalism.
After college she worked as a reporter for the Tyrone Daily Herald and then in 1948 moved to Dallas, Texas, where she worked as Stanley Marcus’s administrative assistant. She married J. Lee Vilbig Jr. of Dallas in 1950 and over the next thirty years raised a family of four children, despite severe health problems developed as result of scoliosis.
Marianne remained an avid reader throughout her life, and at one point read the Nobel Prize winning novels of all the novelists who won the prize since its inception in 1901.
Marianne was known as fiercely loyal to her family, and a tough, feisty woman who at the age of 75 confronted an attempted carjacker, shoved him away, and said, “No, you can’t” when he demanded her keys in a parking lot. She remembered seeing him in her rearview mirror scratching his head as she drove off.
She is survived by her four children: Peter Vilbig and his wife, Susan Hayes, of Brooklyn, David Vilbig and his wife, Barbara, of Dallas, Fred Vilbig and his wife, Diane, of St. Louis, Linda Boggess and her husband, Charles (Butch) Boggess, of Houston. She is also survived by 14 grandchildren, and one great grandchild.
A visitation was held at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home in Dallas, TX on Friday, June 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. with a Rosary at 8. A Funeral service was held on Saturday, June 9 at St. Monica Catholic Church at 10:30 a.m. Donations may be made to Scottish Rite Hospital of Texas in Dallas, the Dallas Rotary Foundation, or to a charity of your choice.
