Marilyn Elkus Obituary

McCormick Elkus
Marilyn McCormick Elkus
June 12, 1935
June 11, 2022

Today, a circle of Mickey's family gathered to spread her ashes and honor her spirit. She was born on June 12, 1935, to Howard and Annabelle Gray McCormick in Trinidad, Colorado, and died under hospice care in Oakland, California, on June 11, 2022, just hours short of her eighty-seventh birthday. Mickey is survived by her husband Jonathan and their son Ian, and by beloved family and friends.
Raised in Colorado Springs, Mickey attended Palmer High School and Colorado University at Boulder. She loved the mountains, where her niece Patty and nephews Mike and Rick would later ski with her. She trained to become an accomplished dancer and figure skater and took lifelong pleasure in watching her favorite dance companies and athletic teams. Remembering her youthful summers as a fan of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, Mickey passed her love of baseball on to Ian, to whom she taught the game. Over the years she attended Red Sox, Giants and A's games, and she rejoiced when Colorado got their own professional team—always holding a special fondness for her home state.
Mickey's initial career began in Baton Rouge and Los Angeles as office manager for medical specialists, architects, and civil engineers. Married to Jonathan and living in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and, finally, Northern California, she worked as manuscript typist for poets, novelists, translators, and scholars. Always with her copy-editing skills fully engaged, she typed accurately and at lightning speed. She never missed a deadline.
Everywhere Mickey lived or traveled widened her search for simplicity and artistry in cooking, gardening and crafts—her mix of an unusual fish sauce into Caesar dressing, and flash-fried garden sage for pasta; her koi pond, and her masterful ikebana, impeccably displayed in her own home-crafted pottery.
Mickey remained creative, energetic, and confident as she embraced the opportunities and culture of Piedmont Gardens, the retirement community where she and Jonathan moved nearly a dozen years ago. There they delighted in sharing Ian's devotion to his two stepsons Phoenix and Alexander, and to Alexander's mother Si Clare. Mickey's friends and family near and far miss her deeply.