Marilyn Elaine (Swanson) Sedlacek, 90, peacefully slipped away October 11, 2023, at her residence in Overland Park, KS.

She was born on December 30, 1932, to her parents Amond and Magnhild Swanson and grew up on the family farm near Ithaca, NE.  She loved to talk about her childhood and the wondrous beauty of being a farm girl, despite the work involved. She graduated from Wahoo High School in 1949 and attended Luther College in Wahoo. From there she taught in the Rural Schools of Saunders County (NE) and enjoyed her time teaching in one-room schools.

She married her husband, Victor Sedlacek, in 1959 and left Nebraska to begin raising her family in Iowa with stops in Ogden, Oakland and finally Des Moines where she and Victor set about raising three children they’d acquired along the way. Service and faith were Marilyn’s passions, and she spent hours volunteering in both the Girl and Boy Scout organizations, as a local election worker, with a local American Legion chapter and as a member and organist for the Highland Park Lutheran Church. She and Victor relocated to Kansas in 2015, yet she didn’t give up her allegiance to Nebraska (Go Big Red!). She added more to the plate, becoming an avid fan of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Royals.

Always a keen listener and a wonderful storyteller, she thoroughly enjoyed raising three kids and then becoming “Grandma Troll” to the grandkids. A helpful soul and role model of kindness, Marilyn was always available to pitch in when needed. Her rye breads, cinnamon rolls, and kolaches satisfied many a hungry tummy over the years and several of the grandkids have kept up the tradition of making delicious treats for friends and family.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Amond and Magnhild Swanson, her husband of sixty years Victor Sedlacek, her daughter, Rhonda Murphy, of Noblesville, IN, and her brother, Daryl Swanson of Malmo, NE.

She leaves behind a legacy of caring for others to her surviving family members –sons Robert Sedlacek (Tina) of Lenexa, KS, and Roger Sedlacek (Allison) of Greeley, CO. Son-In-Law David Murphy of Noblesville, IN. Her grandchildren Haley Taylor, Alexander, and Eric Sedlacek (Robert and Tina), Gregory and Kathleen Murphy (Rhonda and David), Mason, Ellery Zeitlow and Liza Sedlacek (Roger and Allison).