Marianne Jean Stevens went on to her heavenly home on Wednesday at the age of 85.
She was born on June 11, 1937, in Madison, MN to John Solting and Marie Peterson Solting. On Aug 9, 1959, she married Dale Erdal in Trinity Lutheran Church in Boyd, MN. On Oct 31, 1969, he passed away. On Feb 10, 1979, she married Dale Stevens, a US Army officer, and she became a stepmother to his two children.
Marianne and Dale soon moved to Huntsville, Alabama where he served an assignment at Redstone Arsenal and they became members of Saint Mark’s Lutheran Church. In 2019 they moved to Magnolia Trace, a retirement community in Huntsville. Dale passed away on November 29, 2020.
Marianne is a graduate of Boyd High School and Mankato State University in Minnesota, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in curriculum instruction. She served as an educator teaching high school English in Minnesota, Iowa, California, and Alabama, and earned her teaching retirement from the State of Minnesota.
Marianne served in various Officers’ Wives Clubs, as a member of St. Mark’s altar guild, the Delta Kappa Gamma philanthropic society, and as an Alabama State President of the Philanthropic Education Organization. She devoted herself to her home and family, loved literature, and was respected and loved by many. Marianne could pick out a dear friend in most crowds in Huntsville and often other places around the world and always had time to chat.
Marianne was preceded in death by her parents and her sister, Ruby Larson. She is survived by her sisters, Rosella Hjelm, and Marlys Johnson; brothers, John and Alan Solting; her stepdaughter, Joan (Peter); her stepson, Jeff (Katrina); and her grandchildren, whom she dearly loved, Peter and Sam Schroeder and Hannah, Elijah, and Josiah Stevens.
A memorial service to celebrate her life will be held at Saint Mark’s Lutheran Church at 3PM with a visitation at 2PM on Sunday, 29 Jan. 29, 2023. The family requests that memorials be made to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Huntsville, AL.
