Marilyn - a beginning biography

Marilyn Gloria Mørk was born November 10,  1934 in Minnesota to Thorbjorn Mørk, a Norwegian immigrant and Martha Ingebritson, a descendant of Norwegian immigrants.  The eldest of 10 children, she helped her mother care for the younger ones.

She moved with her family's peripatetic wanderings which included post-War Germany where her father was working for the US government, Idaho, and Spokane, Washington.

She met and married William Wesley Pilcher in the early 1950s.  They had three children, James, Mary Linda, and Carl.  The relationship with Willie was difficult.  They divorced, remarried, and divorced again before moving on in other directions.

She became ill in the early 1960s with a pair of chronic and systemic problems that would plague her, challenge her, and drive her to achieve for the rest of her life.   The diagnoses were not easy.  Mixed up symptoms from systemic lupus and diabetes caused doctors to give her no idea as to what was wrong and a death sentence.  Decades later, when she met up with and shocked one of her doctors from the 60s.  He was certain that she had died years earlier.


Marilyn has always been an artist, her life experiences and the images drawn from deep inside driving the personal pieces that reflect her sense of self and self-image and of those around her, her commercial work filled with love, beauty and wonderment, and religious pieces, tapestry and embroidery work showing her deep devotion to her faith.

During her life, she ran a bookstore, an art gallery, a Portland Saturday market booth, and a framing business.

Marilyn died June 22, 2012 in the early evening after prolonged illness.  She was preceded in death by her daughter, Mary Linda, her younger son, Carl, her ex-husband, Willie, and five younger brothers and sisters.

She is survived by her older son and his wife, Jim and Linda, her grandson, Albert, her sisters, Char and Romy, and brothers Thom and Jay.

Next bio:  Marilyn and the Triptych.  We will include pictures of her most controversial work from the 1950s.