Marlys Mae Giles

Marlys Mae Giles was born on December 25, 1931 in Granite Falls, Minnesota to Hilde and Manford Highum Sr. Hilde passed away when Marlys was around five years old, which resulted in Marlys and four of her siblings being adopted by Ivan and Evelyn Williamson.

The Williamson’s moved to Longview while Marlys was still in grade school. Marlys graduated from R A Long High School in 1949. When Marlys was 13 she met a tall, dark, and handsome young man from Kelso in church. It was the beginning of a life long romance. On January 21, 1950, on the heels of a blizzard here in Longview, Marlys married that young man, Robert C. Giles. He preceded her to their heavenly home on December 15, 2020 just a few weeks shy of their 71st wedding anniversary.

Marlys’s main occupation over the past 70 years was wife & “domestic engineer.” Bob and Marlys were blessed with six children, two girls and four boys. Marlys served her family in every way. Somehow she managed to keep the house clean, keep the kids in clean clothes every day, prepare the majority of the meals, provide taxi service for the kids, attend their sporting events and school concerts, as well as support her husband in his ministry as a pastor for 60 plus years.

From 1979 to 1995 she served as the cook for Faith Family Christian Center Daycare. She loved to cook, and was very good at it. There were many mornings when members of the Kelso High athletic teams sat at her table for breakfast. There were scores of daycare children who learned that they loved split pea soup when they tried her recipe that she made from scratch. 

She showed her granddaughters how to prepare some of her dessert recipes, especially the glazes on her banana bread or angel food cake.

While her sons were playing sports she became an expert official in football, basketball, and baseball... fortunately she did not have a loud voice or she probably would have been ejected from some of those venues for her difference of opinion with those who had been hired to officiate. Marlys played the piano in church from the time she was a teenager and passed her love for music on to her children and grandchildren. In recent years, as her health declined, she spent her days watching Christian TV channels and sports channels. Marlys had a deep faith in Jesus Christ that has sustained her throughout her 91 years of life and all that it brought her way.

On April 27, 2023 as Marlys sat in her chair in her living room she responded to the call from heaven to come home. While she will be deeply missed, the family rejoices with her in her final promotion.

Marlys is survived by five of her children; son Bob (Vickie), daughter Sally (Victor Sanders), son Jim (Luci), son Rick (Charlotte), son Mike (Lori), sister Lois (William) Powell, brother Richard Antonsen sister-in-law LaDonna Pinard, twenty grandchildren, thirty-eight great-grand children, three great-great-grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews, and the congregation of Faith Family Christian Center. 

Marlys was preceded in death by: husband Robert C. Giles, daughter Susan; parents Ivan and Evelyn Williamson, brothers Howard and Manford Williamson, and sister Ina Sipes.

There will be a celebration of life on May 20, 2023 at 1:00pm at Faith Family Christian Center on the corner of 38th Ave and Ocean Beach Hwy in Longview.