Marilyn Janet Buyers

Marilyn Janet Buyers

Marilyn Janet (née Cliff) Buyers, on June 12, 2023, passed away in her 94th year, at Country Haven Retirement Home in Beachburg, Ontario due to complications from a fall.

Marilyn was born in South Porcupine, Ontario on December 11, 1929 to Walter and Jennie (née Fownes) Cliff.  Growing up, Marilyn was active in music through her church and high school and frequently participated in festivals and concerts, playing piano and singing in the choir.  She won awards for both her musical and academic proficiency.

She attended the University of Western Ontario and took a 3-year program in Secretarial Science.  In January 1955, she took a position as secretary in the Theoretical Physics Branch at Atomic Energy of Canada in Chalk River and moved into the Staff Hotel in Deep River.

Deep River made such an impression on her that after doing a stint in Harwell, England at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, she returned to Chalk River to become secretary to the head of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Dr. W.B. Lewis.

She married Bill Buyers in 1966 and made a life in Deep River with their three children.  She enjoyed gardening, downhill and cross-country skiing, tennis, playing cello and piano, and hiking to name just a few of her many passions.

Marilyn was strong, friendly, generous of spirit, a good storyteller, fun, mischievous, and a very special person.  Everyone remembers her smile and lively, sparkly eyes.

She brought her joyous and adventurous spirit to everything she did: canoeing in Algonquin Park with a shoe for a bailer, being maid of honour for her Swedish pen-pal that she had never met in person, going to Harwell, England to work, traveling in Europe on her own, diving into family geneaology which led her to researching long-lost ancestors in the archives at the University of New Brunswick and in Oxford, England.

Marilyn also enjoyed traveling with her husband Bill.  They traveled to the Maritimes to see her family, went hiking out west every September, enjoyed a sabbatical in 1993 in Vancouver, and made many trips to warmer climates during the cold months, as they got older.

Marilyn leaves behind her children Sarah (Michael Denis) of South Kingstown, Rhode Island and Andrew (Emily Selander) of Deep River, and her grandchildren Aidan, Jason, Dylan, Josie, and Oscar Buyers and Henry Denis.  Marilyn is predeceased by her husband Bill Buyers and her daughter Mary Buyers.

The family would like to thank the staff at Country Haven Retirement Home, Pembroke Regional Hospital, Golden Years, and FlexCare for their compassionate attention and care over the last few years.

Friends may call at the Valley Funeral Home in Deep River on Friday, July 14 from 12:00 pm to 1:50 pm.  A Funeral Service will be held in the chapel at 2:00 pm.  Interment of the cremated remains will be in the Deep River Community Cemetery following the service.  In memoriam donations to Easter Seals Ontario would be gratefully appreciated.