Marilyn Elizabeth Rotert Koch, 85, of Spokane, WA, passed away in her home on February 13, 2026, in the presence of loved ones.
Marilyn was born in Elgin, NE in 1940 to Josephine Schindler and Anton Rotert. She married Gail Koch of Petersburg in 1959, who died from a sudden heart attack in 2022, after 63 years of marriage. She bore five children: Rick Figone, Tony Koch, Lori Koch DeVilbiss, Mary Jo Navarra, and Sara Koch. She has five beautiful grandchildren, a great grandchild, with another on the way in March in Japan.
She and Gail raised four of her children in Norfolk, NE where she was the proprietor of several small businesses, including Marilyn’s Place Daycare Center, as well as Paulyn’s Dance Studio. She and Gail were heavily involved in the Catholic Church, where they served on Parish Council (as the first ever couple to hold the position jointly), School Board, and the Lead Team Couple in Marriage Encounter for all of Northeast Nebraska–one time even braving a blizzard in a small prop plane in order to make it to the weekend retreat on time!
Marilyn and Gail were true trailblazers wherever they went. The dance studio they co-founded put on Norfolk’s first ever production of The Nutcracker in 1984, a herculean undertaking, borrowing retired costumes from Omaha Ballet’s costume department for the affair, as well as learning how to make it snow during the Snow Queen scene. She even attended night school at local community colleges in the two decades she was raising her children, graduating with her Master’s Degree in Social Work at The University of Nebraska at Omaha the same day her youngest child graduated high school in 1990. She and Gail then moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where she worked tirelessly with homeless women and children in the shelter system. In 1995, they returned to the lower 48 in North Idaho, to help care for their newly born grandchild for the next several years. She and Gail also became Bronze Ambassadors in the Reliv International nutrition company during this time.
Marilyn was an avid hospice volunteer throughout her life, bringing The Holy Sacrament and Meals on Wheels to the sick in their homes/hospital, dragging her often reluctant and petulant small children behind her to teach them a lifelong core value: that serving people is more important than all else.
Much to their children’s dismay, their car was often the last one standing in the church parking lot after church every Sunday, their children dutifully melting in the summer heat waiting to go home already. In the end, following the church’s sex abuse scandals, she adamantly transitioned to attending St. Clare’s Ecumenical Catholic Church in Spokane, WA, in the last years of her life. In 2024, she was diagnosed with Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA), a form of dementia.
Marilyn is preceded in death by her parents, Josephine and Anton Rotert, her husband Gail Koch, and by 4 of her 5 siblings—Moe Rotert, Bill Rotert, Jerry Rotert, and Joyce McKenna. She is survived by her sister Cheryl O’Neill, and her 5 aforementioned children/multiple offspring.
Marilyn was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, friend, team leader, caretaker, master pie baker, and teacher of how to make the world’s best apple butter. (Secret: slow roasted in the oven for 24 hours on low, waking up in the night every two hours to stir it, “otherwise, forget it”.) She and Gail were known for throwing the most wonderful meals for family and friends, the best love language of them all. Known for her outlandish red hats and matching Norwegian boots, she was an iconoclast who knew how to have fun and enjoy life, who did not shy away from telling it like it is. She was nothing if not committed to excellence, advocacy of those living in the margins, and most of all, putting people before comfort. Upon reflection of her imminent death, after a lifetime of exploration on how to more fully truly love people, (having read alllll the books and developing a raging case of Seminar-itis), she died with the conclusion that people who know how to truly love another human being, are as rare as they come….and well worth the effort. As she would always sing to her children bickering in the back seat of the station wagon: “Love One Anotherrrrr.”
Memorial Donations can be sent to:
St. Clare’s ECC
PO Box 9686
Spokane, WA 99209
