On October 31, 2019, Marlene P. Cobb, 86, joined her Lord and Savior after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease, joining her husband William (Bill) who passed earlier this year from the same disease.
She is survived by her daughter, Cheryl Watson of Fort Mill, SC; son, William (Bill) Cobb of Scottsdale, AZ; and six grandchildren.
Bill and Marlene lived in Anthony for 26 years before moving to Ocala memory care facilities in late 2017. Marlene was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada but her family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia where she graduated from Kitsilano High School, and then attended the St. Vincent Hospital Nursing School. After graduation she went to Honolulu, Hawaii, where she worked in a tuberculosis hospital and met her future husband, a US Navy officer, on Waikiki Beach. They were married in Vancouver, British Columbia in August 1957. They moved to Gainesville where Bill attended the University of Florida for two years before starting his landscape architecture career in Vancouver, British Columbia. She halted her nursing career with the birth of their first child and focused on raising their two children.
After subsequent moves in California, she went back to nursing while they lived in Southern California, continued her nursing when they moved to Denver, Dallas, Stone Mountain (Georgia), and finally Ocala (Anthony) where she provided in-home nursing support. She and Bill stayed in Anthony after he retired from Marion County’s land-use planning group.
They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2007 by visiting Hawaii with their son’s family, where Marlene was able to tour the facility where she started her nursing career.
Marlene always loved to cook and she provided many recipes to her grandchildren. In their post-retirement years, Marlene and Bill enjoyed living on their 9-acre farm in Anthony until advancing dementia forced both of them to leave their beloved farm. They were members of First Baptist Church of Sparr.
A private memorial service was held with family and close friends in November. The family requests that donations be made to L3 Ministries, 705 Lakeview Dr., Pineville, NC 28134 in lieu of flowers to honor her passion to see God’s Word taught worldwide.