Life Story: Marilyn L. Potter, 64, of Festus

As a child, Marilyn Potter was a lover of all things outdoors.

“She was fascinated by looking at bugs, exploring nature,” said her older sister, Mona Harris of Hillsboro. “That was a hard pill for my mother to swallow, because Mom was terrified of snakes and bugs and everything.”

Younger sister Sheila Gibson of High Ridge said she remembers her sister cultivating unusual pets.

“Marilyn used to tie a string around a worm and walk it down the sidewalk,” Sheila said with a laugh. “I’d ask her, ‘How do you even know which end is its head?’ and she’d just laugh and say, ‘I know.’”

“Worms, turtles chickens – anything she could catch would be her pet,” Mona said. “Sheila and I were more girly, I guess. We didn’t want to play with snakes and bugs, but we’d watch her. But my mom couldn’t stand it.”

Mrs. Potter died at age 64 of complications from lung cancer.

A high school dropout, she went on to a successful career as a machinist making parts for the aerospace industry.

She grew up in Horine with two sisters and a brother.

“My father served in World War II and Korea,” Mona said. “Once he got out, we moved to Horine. He worked at National Lead in St. Louis and my mom was a housewife.”

The three sisters were close in age, with brother Dan “Chip” Dwyer (now of Florida) coming along nearly 10 years later.

“He was our live baby doll,” Mona said.

Mrs. Potter developed a lifelong love of fishing as a young child.

“My dad taught her,” Sheila said. “I remember going once. I caught an eel, and I was done.”

“We’ve got pictures of her ice fishing in Wisconsin, deep-sea fishing in the ocean – she just loved it,” Mona said.

Mrs. Potter left high school to get married, and had her first child right away.

“She started working when she was 17, at the Bemis Bag factory in St. Louis,” Mona said. “She went back and got her GED later.”

In the early 1970s, Mrs. Potter started working at United Engineering in Imperial, a small factory that worked on airplane parts for McDonnell Douglas.

“She got on-the-job training there,” Mona said. “They did machining of parts, and she had to grind these metal parts to size, under very exacting specifications.”

She said her sister was perfectly suited for the job.

“Marilyn was very hands-on; she liked putting things together, making things,” Mona said. “I’ve seen some of the gauges they used, and the parts they worked on. Some were very tiny, and you had to be very exacting. Attention to detail was a big factor.

“I met one of her co-workers and a supervisor one time, and they praised her for the quality of the work she put out so consistently. If there was a problem part, they’d give it to her.”

Mrs. Potter worked for a time at the Anheuser-Busch metal container plant in Arnold, and welcomed a second son in 1973. The family went to Wisconsin to live when her husband was transferred there for his job, and she worked in other fields for some years.

“When she came back here after her divorce in 1993, she got right back into doing the grinding at a machine shop in St. Louis,” Mona said.

Needing better pay and benefits, Mrs. Potter worked for a time at a firm in Wentzville, making car seats for the GM plant there.

“When all the layoffs and cutbacks happened with GM, she went back to her trusty contact and said, ‘Well, I’m available again’ and she went back to machining once again,” Mona said. “They put her right back to work.”

Mrs. Potter was diagnosed in 2012 with lung cancer, and went through chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

“She continued to work,” Mona said. “They’d make her a spot for her to lie down and rest if she needed it, and if she couldn’t come in one day, they were fine with it.

“At first, I thought they were taking advantage of her, but she wanted to. ‘I can do this,’ she’d say. I warned her that she would wear herself out, but I think it helped her to be able to work.”

Mrs. Potter’s retirement goal was to sell her home, buy a motor home and travel the country, seeing the sights and fishing.

“And that’s exactly what she did,” Mona said. “She officially retired in 2016, and late that summer she started off.”

Mrs. Potter would explore, hitting fishing spots as she went, for the next year or so.

“She spent the winter of 2016-2017 in Florida; in the spring of 2017, she headed up north to see things up there,” Mona said. “She went out west in the fall of 2017, then headed back home when she started feeling bad.”

The cancer was back, and Mrs. Potter underwent more surgery and treatments.

“She got back down to Florida,” Mona said. “She lived not far from our brother, and he was there with her as things started to get worse. We all were able to be with her for the last few days.”

Both sisters said they admired Marilyn’s attitude.

“She was never afraid to tackle anything,” Mona said. “She was so outgoing, such a hard worker, and very funny. Everyone always enjoyed being with her.

“She was always a happy person, and always ready to go fishing.”

“Life Story,” posted Saturdays on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.

Source: https://www.myleaderpaper.com/obituaries/life-story-marilyn-l-potter-of-festus/article_c526dfb4-e46f-11e8-8eb9-c3e791bd930b.html - https://fishinghacksandtips.com/life-story-marilyn-l-potter-64-of-festus/ - https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/myleaderpaper.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/0/92/0928d4d8-e470-11e8-9acc-771ff9dec1ec/5be60fad144cf.image.jpg?resize=216%2C217