Cecil Marilyn Stevens Bedford

Cecil Marilyn Stevens Bedford, age 95, passed away on Tuesday June 10, 2025 at Nightingale Nursing and Rehab Center. She was born on February 2, 1930 in Canon City, CO to the late Cecil Stevens and Lois Elizabeth Dabney Stevens.

Marilyn graduated from Olathe High School, Olathe, CO in 1947 and attended Western State College in Gunnison, CO, moving to University of Colorado Boulder in 1950 where she earned a B.S. in chemistry in 1952. She was proud of having climbed two of the “Fourteeners" (Mountains) in Colorado: Mount Sneffles and Uncompahgre with her childhood friend Dick Sullivan, with whom she maintained a life-long friendship.

After graduation Marilyn took a position as a chemistry librarian at Monsanto in St. Louis, Missouri. She met her future husband John Bedford there and they married April 30, 1955. She and John moved to South Bend, Indiana where her first two daughters were born. The family moved to Rockville, MD and then Erie, PA where her third daughter was born. She and John designed their house and built it themselves in Harborcreek, PA where she lived from 1968. Marilyn taught algebra and geometry at St. Benedict’s Academy and then worked at Zurn Corporation as a Technical writer. After she retired from Zurn she volunteered at the Raymond Blasco Public Library and as an usher for the Erie Philharmonic. She also volunteered with AARP to do federal taxes.

She loved to travel with friends and family and took some trips with Elderhostel. She visited Australia, Russia, China, England, Alaska and many other parts of the United States. Marilyn was a very talented embroiderer. All her creations are works of art and many of her friends and family were recipients of beautiful bookmarks and Christmas ornaments. She was a member of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America, the Stan Hywet Needlework Guild, the Chautauqua Region EGA (CREGA) in Jamestown NY, and a charter member, along with good friends Virginia Erickson and Julie Fera, of the Presque Isle Chapter in Erie, PA in August 1990. She served in most offices in the Chautauqua and Presque Isle Chapters as well as the Mid-Eastern Region. Throughout she took and taught classes and led many group correspondence projects. Marilyn was the Gold Thread winner for the Mid-Eastern Region in 2009.

Her calling was to be a teacher. She was able to make geometry and algebra easier and interesting for her students and she especially loved teaching young people the building blocks of embroidery. She was a wonderful cook and baker and very good with computers and her iPad.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, John Stephen Bedford (Erie, PA September 19, 1974) and older sister Carol Jean Stevens (Tempe, AZ, May 12, 1992).

Marilyn is survived by her daughters, Virginia Bedford (Peter Finnoff) of Fairbanks, AK, Elizabeth Krebs (Robert) of Pittsburgh, PA, and Laurie Sullivan (Barry) of Harrisburg, PA; grandchildren John Sullivan (Valerie) of Columbia, MD, Emily Sullivan of Harrisburg, PA, Olivia Sullivan of Harrisburg, PA, Stephen Krebs (Cassandra) of Pittsburgh PA, Diane Krebs of Pittsburgh PA, Bjorn Finnoff of Fairbanks, AK; great grandchildren Dillon Sullivan and Hunter Krebs; brother, Charles Stevens (d. Geraldine Stevens) of Girard, OH, and sister, Judith Stevens Carlson (Keith) of Boone, Iowa.

She’s further survived by seven nieces and nephews, dear neighbors Patrick and Karen Holland, children Emma, Grace, and Lukas and close friends Priscilla Hamilton and Gary Rafferty.

Her daughters express great appreciation to the staff at Nightingale Nursing and Rehab Center for their kindness to our mother in her last weeks.

Family and friends are invited to a Celebration of Life Service on June 28, 2025 at 3:00pm at Eastminster Presbyterian Church, 2320 East Lake Road, Erie, PA 16511.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Burton Quinn Scott Cremation & Funeral Services Inc., Wintergreen, 2532 Norcross Rd., Erie, PA 16510.

Interment will be held at Wintergreen Gorge Cemetery at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to WQLN PBS (the local PBS Station in Erie PA), Second Harvest Food Back of Northwest PA, or The Salvation Army.