Marillyn Jo Soulen (née Bryan)

Died peacefully, March 20, 2023, in her sleep.

Marillyn was born and raised in Antigo, Wisconsin, and loved music her whole life. In high school, she played clarinet in band, and proudly marched on Lambeau Field during half-time at a Green Bay Packers game. She sang alto in choirs most of her life. In addition to church choirs, she was a founding member of both the Minnesota Chorale and the Hamline Oratorio Society.

She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she met and married her husband Tom. She majored in zoology, and earned a masters degree in library science. She became the assistant director of the university’s engineering library, while her husband completed graduate school.

When her children were younger, she worked in the home. Later she became a professional law librarian to financially support her children’s college educations. She held positions at educational, government, and private institutions. At Hamline University Law Library, she served as their specialist in federal documents. At the Minnesota State Law Library, she became the first librarian for its Prison Project, to make the law available to people serving their sentences in the five prisons around the Twin Cities Area. (She was affectionately named “Mother Justice” by the inmates, and eventually needed to be replaced by two people). At Rider, Bennet, Egan, and Arundel, she was Head Librarian, and worked with attorneys who either were or became state and federal judges, a governor, and two Chief Justices of Minnesota’s Supreme Court.

While she was raised congregationalist in her youth, she became active in the Presbyterian church in her adult years: trustee and elder at Pres House in Madison, WI, and a ruling elder at North Como in Roseville, MN, serving on and chairing several committees. During her last two decades, she joined Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, where she served as a greeter, volunteered in its library and archives, and served as an elder commissioner to presbytery.

Marillyn was preceded in death by her sisters (Elizabeth and Grace Bryan), her parents (Josie H and Mildred H Bryan), her husband (Thomas K. Soulen), and her brothers (G. Terrell Bryan and James C. Bryan).

Marillyn is survived by her children Karen Wasiluk, Sarah Sabetti, Peter Soulen (Kate Soulen), and grandchildren John Wasiluk (Rylee Wasiluk), Anne Woods (Zach Woods), Maria Sabetti, and Kristina Sabetti.

memorial service

Memorial Service

June 29, 2023

Westminster Presbyterian Church 1200 S Marquette Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55403, USA

In the chapel of Westminster Presbyterian Church.

The memorial service will be streamed live at https://westminstermpls.online.church/.

Funeral/Cremation Provider: Crescent Tide Cremation Services