Marlene Tolan

Marlene Orta Garcia Tolan, 89, died peacefully in her home in Bremerton, Washington on Thursday afternoon, April 16th, 2026.

Born December 14, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas to Antonio Garcia, a railroad worker & Maria de la Luz Orta, a seamstress, she was the 3rd of their 4 children. She quickly distinguished herself when soon after birth she was sickly & her parents thought she might die. She was supposed to be named “Maria de la Concepcion”, following in line with her siblings, Maria del Socorro & Maria de la Esperanza (and later baby brother Carlos) but when her father rushed her to the church to be baptized and was asked her name by the priest, he came up with “Marlene!” after the German movie star, Marlene Dietrich.

Growing up during World War II, Marlene loved her country & was deeply patriotic. With olive skin and striking green eyes people would always ask which country she was from, & she would cheekily reply “Texas!”

Marlene’s family had many aunts & uncles living close by. Like many of her cousins, she spent many a night at her maternal grandmother, Carmen Orta’s house. Carmen’s husband had been killed in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution which prompted the family to abruptly emigrate to the US for their safety. Marlene admired her grandmother, who had devotion to prayer & daily Mass & this inspired her own Catholic faith, her love of the sacraments & a lifelong pursuit to be pious & committed to the Lord.

Marlene attended Ben Milam Elementary, still proudly reciting the “Ben Milam Forever” song into her 80’s & later Emerson Junior High School. On junior high weekends she would tag along with her older sisters &their respective dates (brothers!) to community dances at Lockwood Park which instilled a love of dancing & physical recreating that would persist her whole life.

For high school she took the bus across town to Thomas Jefferson High School graduating in 1955 where she excelled in sports, including volleyball, softball and tennis. She also worked during this time as a cashier at Lynvall’s drugstore, as a youth leader at her church, St. Patrick’s & as a softball official for the Catholic Youth Organization, for which she even made the paper!

Marlene attended college at Texas Woman’s University, graduating in 1959 with a BA in Health, Physical Education & Recreation (HPER) while also working part-time in the cafeteria and as a residential assistant.

Post-college, she took a smattering of recreation jobs including Playground Director for the City of San Antonio, PE Instructor at Harlandale High School in San Antonio, and further out as HPER Specialist with Coolidge Public Schools in Coolidge Arizona, Arizona Children’s Colony, a special needs school & with Panhandle State College in Goodwell, Oklahoma. During this time she also acquired additional teaching certificates including Adult Basic Education (ABE), Arizona Standard Secondary & Texas Secondary Level.

Marlene returned to Texas Woman’s University for her MA in Physical Education & Recreation with a Minor in Dance in 1967 and participated in additional clubs including the HPER Professionals, Folk Dance Club & 2 years with a Posture Clinic.

Marlene’s proudest career honor was to serve her country for two years between 1967-1969 as a Peace Corps Volunteer for which she trained at California State in Los Angeles & later Washington DC & was eventually sent to work in Santiago & La Romana, Dominican Republic, where she helped teachers standardize & improve their own curriculum. She forged many friendships there & enjoyed traveling to all of the little islands in the Caribbean & was able to return to re-visit the D.R. just for fun in 1992.

Post her Peace Corp time, she took additional jobs in Arizona as an ABE Instructor for Maricopa County Junior College & with the Maricopa County Skills Center, Central Arizona College in Coolidge, Migrant Job Training & Job Placement for Arizona Job College in Casa Grande & as an Instructor with the Migrant Resource Program for Eloy Public Schools in Eloy, Arizona.

Around this time she re-kindled a courtship with John Paul Tolan, whom she had met prior while working at the Arizona Children’s Colony. They dated intermittently, and eventually got married in June 1977 &moved to Bremerton, Washington, where John was from, to start their new life together.

Marlene was a part-time adjunct professor at Olympic College and a substitute teacher at Chico Elementary while waiting on word of her acceptance as a full-time school teacher with the Central Kitsap School District, for which she worked an additional 22 years, the remainder of her working career teaching 6th & 5th grade at Clear Creek Elementary, 5th grade at Cottonwood Elementary & finishing her career with her final year as a librarian at Pine Crest Elementary retiring in 2000. During this time she also volunteered as an advisor to the school board at Star of the Sea.

Marlene loved traveling and had a vivacious sense of adventure & was even able to take one of her grade school classes on a trip to the Grand Canyon. She had an intense interest in other cultures & taught many of her school kids how to dance tinikling, a traditional Philippine dance. In 1991 she also attended an Arizona State University Summer Program in Guadalajara, Mexico in Mexican Folklore, Music & Culture and enjoyed advancing her Spanish language skills. While having taken a handful of daytrips to Mexico via Nogales from Arizona & Laredo with her mother & sisters for church excursions from San Antonio, she yearned to travel back to Leon, Guanajuato in central Mexico where her mother’s family was from. She had traveled there before as a teenager with her grandmother & other cousins which left indelible ties to those relatives & aside from a brief trip in 2003, was forever planning her next trip back.

Marlene had the gift of gab & was able to strike up a conversation with anyone, anywhere and easily got lost in conversation with each person she spoke with, be it extended relatives or complete strangers asking each of them genuinely “What have you done for yourself lately?” and “Are you paying yourself first?”

While she enjoyed the beauty & splendor of the Pacific Northwest, she prioritized frequently getting back to Texas where she could do yardwork with her dad, with whom she was very close or where she could tool around town with her mother or sisters, or at the Dallas airport, where she would shoot the breeze with her brother on her layovers from Seattle to San Antonio, until her connecting flight took off. Marlene was a mixer & was always looking for an excuse to get people together, especially within her own extended family - whether to have a party or just have an ice cold beer on a hot day!

Marlene was creative & thoroughly enjoyed sewing, mending, frequent cooking, gardening, sending random care packages or leaving goofy voicemail messages. She also never shied away from labor-intensive tasks such as pulling up sticky floor tiles by hand or endless remodeling at her parents’ or her own rental properties. In retirement she volunteered at the Salvation Army, Star of the Sea senior lunches & funeral committee, and she always found the time to step in & help people needing Spanish interpreting, whether at a grocery store, at the DMV or at the library, befriending many. She loved each of her nieces & nephews dearly, even having some of them live with her briefly & was always encouraging them to visit – or in the case of her husband’s family, always dropping by unannounced just to check in!

Marlene was playful, spontaneous, generous, gung-ho and 1000% authentic, saying exactly what she thought even if it was shocking! She did not mince words & this caused people to have strong feelings either for or against her. But many times she would be out in public & a former student would come up to her & give her a giant hug, eager to tell her some of their favorite memories with her as their teacher.

Marlene joins her husband & his siblings, her brother Carlos, her sister Espi, two nephews, Tim & John, and leaves behind her eldest sister, Soco Flores of San Antonio, her sister-in-law Elva Garcia in Dallas, cherished nieces & nephews all over the US, several cousins & their families whom she holds dear, a few good friends & neighbors, and her only child, Anna Maria, her Best Daughter and one Grand-child, Simon Anthony, a recent college grad, her most beloved.

A viewing will be held from 1-5pm on Wednesday, May 27th at:

Lewis Funeral Chapel
5303 Kitsap Way
Bremerton, WA 98312

A funeral mass will be held on Thursday, May 28th at:

Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church
500 Veneta Ave
Bremerton, WA 98337

10am viewing
10:30am rosary
11am mass service with a reception following downstairs

Burial will take place at 3pm at:
Vaughn Bay Cemetery
9600 186th Ave NW
Vaughn, WA 98394

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Marlene’s memory to Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Bremerton or St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in San Antonio.