Marilyn Rita Pelletier

Long-time Davis resident Marilyn Rita Pelletier died of natural causes on July 30, 2026. She was 104 years old.

Marilyn was born on November 24, 1921, in St. Francis Maine, the third youngest of seven siblings. Her father Laurent Pelletier was a farmer and her mother Marie Sirois an elementary school teacher before their marriage. Both descended from families who had lived in Northern Maine and French-speaking Canada for centuries after their ancestors immigrated from France in the 17th century. The family spoke French at home, and Marilyn retained her knowledge of French throughout her life.

During the latter years of the Great Depression, Marilyn left Northern Maine for employment in order to support her family. During World War II she worked in the Civil Service War Department in Springfield, MA. After the war she worked as a waitress in Lake Placid, New York, where she could practice her love of figure skating, and in New York City, where she worked for an orthopaedic surgeon and at the Hospital for Joint Disease. It was here that she discovered her love for health care and public service that accompanied her throughout her life.

Marilyn traveled to Sante Fe, New Mexico, and moved to the Los Angeles urban area in the late 1940s. Unable to finish high school at home during the Great Depression, she received her high school diploma from Pasadena City College in 1951. She earned an Associate of Arts Degree from John Muir College that same year, and received a certificate in Physical Therapy from the College of Medical Evangelists (later Loma Linda University) in 1954.

She met her husband, William Hugh Klein, over the backyard fence in Altadena, California, in 1952. They married on March 26, 1954, in Loma Linda California. In the following decades, Marilyn joined her husband as he pursued his college studies and later his profession as an entomologist. After their initial years in the Altadena-Pasadena area, they lived in Corvallis, Oregon; New Haven Connecticut; Portland Oregon; Amherst Massachusetts; and North Ogden Utah, before moving to Davis in 1977. They divorced in 1988, and Marilyn remained a Davis resident until her passing.

A lifelong learner, Marilyn attended college courses and obtained graduation credits wherever she and her husband lived. She graduated from Weber State College in Ogden, Utah, with an Associate Degree in Nursing in 1970, and from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City with a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing in 1973. She worked for over 45 years as a Registered Physical Therapist and a Registered Nurse, both in a clinical setting as well as in home-based care, in Oregon, Massachusetts, Utah, California and Texas, where she joined her husband for a sabbatical. 

Following her retirement in the 1980s, Marilyn hosted UC Davis students from around the world in her home, building life-long friendships with many of them. She volunteered for Catholic and senior citizen charities in the Davis area. She routinely drove to Mexico and Central America to participate in charitable activities, bringing friends and students with her, and often camped with the students on the beaches in Mexico. Marilyn supported the Northern California Rwandan community following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. She helped community members and their families in Rwanda with legal, social and organisational matters, and served as a trusted and beloved partner for the community until her passing.

Marilyn is survived by her daughter, Norma Jean Klein and son-in-law Winston Eddy; son William Hugh Klein Jr. and daughter-in-law Celine d'Cruz; and grandson Caleb William Eddy. She will be interred in the Davis cemetery.