Edmonds woman was lively, strong and outgoing

Published 4:02 pm Monday, October 4, 2010

Three members of the Saling family in Edmonds died within five months of one another.

Fred Saling, 91, died July 6. His wife, Ann Saling, 88, died March 5.

Their only daughter, Marilyn Hill, 62, died of emphysema June 14 at her Camano Island home.

“It’s been very, very hard,” said Hill’s son, Delmar Larsen, a university professor in California.

The Salings lived with the aid of around-the-clock caregivers in their home. Hill visited her parents several times each week to grocery shop, read to them and work in the yard.

The house included mementos from an intriguing life. Fred Saling was a commander in the Navy and moved his family around the world.

Hill loved living in South America.

“She was the happiest in Rio de Janeiro,” her son said. “A very athletic woman, she was the top woman high jumper in South America” at one time.

He said his mother went through her hippie phase, was opinionated, and taught him to ride a motorcycle when he was 19. She worked as a waitress and bartender and had 10 different dachshunds through the years, all named Bernardo, except for one named Lorenzo.

“She was a wild woman,” Larsen said. “She wasn’t always civil. Civility didn’t necessarily apply to her.”

His mother wasn’t big on rules.

Paul Hill met his future wife in 1989 when he worked for the Boeing Co. She was a bartender at The Jet Deck, a popular hangout for Boeing workers near Paine Field.

“She kept the place hopping,” Paul Hill said. “People went in because of her. She kept everything lively.”

He asked her out. They took a boat ride and were together ever since.

Their idea of camping back in the day was rough, in the back of a Toyota pickup truck, on logging roads.

“We didn’t go to campgrounds,” Paul Hill said. “We’d go up around Winthrop.”

They loved to target shoot, he said.

“She liked things like that,” her husband said. “She seemed macho. She portrayed a tough image.”

Her friend saw through the facade.

“I never, never heard a mean word come out of her mouth,” said Nadine McCray. “She put on a great front. She would see if she could shock you.”

Marilyn Hill challenged men and women to arm wrestle. She’d drop and do pushups just for the fun of it. She ate health food, yogurt and wore jeans and sleeveless shirts.

She is survived by her husband and son; brother Rick Saling of Seattle; daughter Ann Carpenter of Marysville; and four grandchildren.

Working out at a Stanwood gym three hours a day was her passion.

Not cooking.

A kitchen magnet read “I understand the concept of cooking and cleaning. I don’t understand how it applies to me.”

Shortly after her mother died, Hill arranged a surprise for her father. An honor guard from Naval Station Everett dropped by his home and performed a flag-folding ceremony.

He was thrilled.

“What I so deeply miss is not seeing the beauty of how Marilyn cared for her parents and husband,” McCray said. “She had a heart that wouldn’t quit, but she seemed to like to hide it.”

Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.