WESTERLO — Strong willed in whatever she did, Marilyn C. Nevins was thankful for her life and resolute in her faith.

She died on her birthday, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, in the home of her loving son John. She was 83.

Married shortly after she graduated from high school in Brooklyn, she and her husband, John “Jack” Nevins, moved upstate from the congested south shore of Long Island as they were beginning to raise a family, their son, Thomas “Toby” Nevins, said. They lived in a large white Colonial home with black shutters previously owned by his parents on Hunt Road in rural Westerlo.

The Nevinses remodeled the house over the course of their marriage, rewiring, plumbing, and forming it to their lives. The kitchen where Mrs. Nevins was so skilled had just the layout to make her comfortable. For their 25th wedding anniversary, the Nevinses purchased a bedroom set.

Although she and her husband changed settings, from the Brooklyn of their youth to the rural Helderbergs, their love for each other was unchangeable.

Mrs. Nevins was born on Jan. 8, 1932, in Brooklyn to the late Thomas and Carrie Graff Scott. She was from a middle-class family and athletic, beating boys in handball — a tennis-like game bouncing a ball off of a vertical wall.

Mr. Nevins, who grew up in Brooklyn as well, was the love of her life. He died in 1985.

“She never talked as being interested in anybody else,” said Thomas Nevins.

As she was recently recovering from operations to repair her lung, she looked back on the times they shared with gratitude.

Visiting her bedside last month, Pastor Will Balta from the South Westerlo Congregational Church read from psalms.

As she spoke to her family last month, Mrs. Nevins talked openly about what they would need to know and do after she died.

“She had a mental picture of her house and where she put things,” said Thomas Nevins.

Reading paperback novels whenever she was not taking care of her sons, working for extra income, or repairing the house, Mrs. Nevins had a large appetite for words and a sharp mind. In recent years, she kept hundreds of books in her electronic reader.

She enjoyed socializing and laughing, but wasn’t the one to make a joke, her son said.

Going through her effects, her sons found a small notebook with copied excerpts from the Bible, which she also read often.

Mrs. Nevins worked in secretarial and typesetting jobs at Grumman Aviation in Long Island and Hartford Insurance Company in Delmar.

“You’d never hear my mom complain,” her son said. “She’d just do whatever had to be done.”

In the 1990s, Mrs. Nevins was recovering at home after she was treated for having an underactive thyroid. Moses Van Zandt, a head cook at the local Grange hall used for congregate meals, delivered food to her home for several months. When she was able to work again, she volunteered for many years at the site, run by the Helderberg Senior Services group.

“It was just a good atmosphere,” said Mr. Nevins. “My mom liked to laugh. They got the job done.”

She was an excellent cook and loved gardening, traveling with local senior groups and the occasional outing with “the girls” to the Saratoga Racino.

Most recently, she cleaned dishes and rang up orders in the cafeteria at the Greenville schools, retiring in 2012 at the age of 80.

After an intense blizzard in February 2010, Mrs. Nevins was downstairs, preparing early in the morning to go to work in Greenville. She heard the beams of the roof creaking and began to walk up the stairs to check when the roof partly collapsed into her bedroom. The home was later demolished, with a new one built in its place.

A clock in her home displayed the words that described her in brief, her son said: “Live well, laugh often, and love much.”

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Marilyn Catherine Nevins is survived by her sons, John Nevins and Thomas “Toby” Nevins and his wife, Elaine, of Westerlo; her grandsons, Scott Nevins and Steven Nevins; her sisters-in-law Betty Koster, Judy Scott, and Evelyn Smith and her husband, Robert; her brother-in-law Daniel Nevins and his wife, Donna; and many nieces and nephews. She is also survived by many friends, including her close friends Valerie Komjathy, Ann Werger, and Felicia “Flo” Saitta.

Her husband, John “Jack” Nevins, died before her, as did her siblings, Alfred Nevins and his wife, Lillian, Thomas Scott, and Ruth Wendel and her husband, Robert.  Her sisters-in-law, Marie Domine, Lillian Nevins, and her brother-in-law, Edwin Koster died before her, as well.

Arrangements are by A.J. Cunningham Funeral Home, 4898 Route 81 in Greenville. Mourners may go online to ajcunninghamfh.com.

Her body has been cremated, with her ashes to be buried at a later date. The family thanks St. Peter’s Community Hospice for all of its help.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Westerlo Rescue Squad, Post Office Box 12, Westerlo, NY 12193. 

— Marcello Iaia