Marilou Salmon

MOUND CITY, Ill. -- Marilou H. Salmon, 81, of Spring Hill, Fla., formerly of Hoffman Estates, Ill., died Monday, Nov. 26, 2007.

A private memorial service will be held in Spring Hill.

She was born May 4, 1926, in Mound City, to Frances Lentz and George Hooppaw. She attended Chicago College of Business in 1946.

Marilou married her hometown sweetheart, Paul, in 1946 and relocated from Illinois to the campus of the University of Michigan while Paul completed his graduate studies. While in Michigan, she and her husband began raising a family of two sons and two daughters.

During Paul's teaching tenure in Illinois, Marilou became an accomplished homemaker and cook, nurturing her children and instilling a love of literature and quest for knowledge in each.

Marilou enjoyed serving as a Brownie/Girl Scout leader. An avid gardener, she grew many prized hybrid tea roses at her Illinois home while honing her skills as an accomplished genealogical researcher, tracing our family tree over the course of two decades of research.

After Paul's retirement as a university professor in 1984, they traveled extensively throughout Mexico and the United States and were enthusiastic Airstream Club members. In 1985 she and Paul relocated to Texas seeking a slower-paced life. They purchased a home in the Rio Grande Valley, but never one to sit still for long, she returned to Illinois to direct the architectural restoration of Paul's ancestral 1800s home. Upon its completion and application for placement on the National Registry of Historic Homes, she and Paul traveled to Florida. She fulfilled her dream of living near the ocean by purchasing a home on the Nature Coast of central Florida. She enjoyed the last years of her life in the company of her husband; son Ronald, and frequent visits from her other children and grandchildren. She will be greatly missed by her family, friends and her adored companions, a golden retriever, Puppy, and a great Pyrenees, Sam.

Survivors include her husband Paul; daughters, Paula of New Orleans, La., Barbara of Coos Bay, Ore.; sons, Gary of Champaign, Ill., and Ronald of Fort Myers Beach, Fla.; granddaughters, Elyse, Elizabeth and Anjanna; longtime friends Evelyn Lockard, Louise Calvin, Tina Giamberdino, the Colemans and the Scales.

Her mother, father, brothers and sisters preceded her in death.

Guestbook link: www.legacy.com/SPTimes/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonID=98904963.