OBITUARY: MARLENE MANN 1939 – 2004

Two very similar words – courage and encourage – encapsulate two of the strongest qualities that people recognised in Marlene Mann. Courage, because Marlene carried the burden of cancer for 27 years without complaint; encourage, because she was a woman who was so focused on others and their needs whether they be family, friends or the many children she had the pleasure of guiding and helping throughout a long teaching career.
Marlene was born in St Andrew’s Hospital in East Melbourne on 22nd April 1939, the first child of Francis and Isobelle Bladon. She grew up in Yarraville and attended Spotswood Primary School, Williamstown High and MacRobertson Girls High before training as a primary teacher at Toorak Teachers College. Marlene commenced her teaching career at Yarraville West Primary School in 1960.
Through her membership of the Apostolic Church of Australia she met a young man from the other side of the city and she and John Mann were married in 1962. After raising their three children, Peter, Kerrie and Megan, Marlene returned to teaching at Highvale P.S. in Glen Waverley and some years later moved to Mossgiell Park P.S. in Endeavour Hills where she taught until failing health forced her into retirement.
Marlene was one of the foundation members of the Doll Association of Victoria and through it she gained a wide circle of warm friends.
John and Marlene moved to Barbican Court, Rowville in 1991 and before long became counters and distributors of the News.
In recent months Marlene was in and out of the hospital of her birth (now the Peter McCallum Hospital) and passed away there on 12th February.
John, who retired three years ago after a long career in printing, has studied to qualify as a Chaplain and he serves in a voluntary capacity at Peter McCallum two days a week helping others as he had supported Marlene.
A congregation of over 250 people gathered at the Highway Christian Church on 16th February to farewell Marlene, a much-loved wife, mother, nana of Sammuel and Isabella and a friend to many.
Bryan Power

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