Marlene Guyer

Marlene Mae Guyer died on the afternoon of Saturday October 11th, 2025. She was born Marlene Mae Strong in Springfield Illinois on the 6th of September in 1935, the same year that the Hoover Dam was dedicated by President Roosevelt and parking meters were seen by the American public for the first time. She spent most of her childhood and adolescence on the front range of Colorado, being raised by a single mother of partial Mexican heritage along with her younger sister and brother. They were very poor; sometimes living in homes with dirt floors. She attended various primary schools in the front range of Colorado. Occasionally, there were not enough children inhabiting the local area to allow for typical schooling and she would receive tutelage from someone in the community kind enough to educate the very few youths in the area. In one such year of her education, her class contained only three people including herself. She graduated from High-school in 1954.

Marlene soon moved to Chicago to join the business workforce and had many places of employment as a secretary and bank teller. Marlene was intrinsically cheerful and sociable with strong but quiet confidence and a sharp, practical mind. Her love of people and her merry spirit drew her to work with the public, even from an early age. As a young woman on her own, she did similar work in a wide spattering of other cities as well such as New York, San Francisco, Toronto, and Denver.

She married Earl Guilford Guyer, the love of her life, in 1962 in Colorado and soon gave birth to two daughters in the years to come: Gloria Jean Guyer born in 1963, and Mary Marlene Guyer born in 1966. Marlene lived with her new family in Las Animas Colorado, raising her two young girls for several years. In 1972, her husband Earl agreed to take a job as a psychologist for troubled veterans at the VA hospital in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and so moved their family to the small rural town of Vilonia, less than an hour’s drive from Little Rock.

Once in Vilonia, Marlene, being enthusiastic about becoming a part of her new local community, began to work as a school librarian and school secretary while her two daughters attended the Vilonia school system. She then continued her work as a secretary and librarian long after her younger daughter had graduated. Marlene worked within the Vilonia school system for over thirty years. She was adored by the students and loved to assist and support everyone around her. She made a reputation for herself among children and adults alike as an energetic, helpful, and kind woman.

In her mature years, Marlene joined in her husband's later found passion for running and competed in innumerable road races, fun-runs, and distance running charity events in and around central Arkansas. She had amassed quite the trophy collection during her years as a foot racer. Marlene helped others learn to enjoy the sport of running as a leader of the “Women Can Run” program. Also during this time, Marlene was an active volunteer of Toad Suck Daze and was once the “Toad-Suck Queen”.

In her early years as an elder, she found an outlet for her socially oriented spirit in becoming a heavily involved member of the Red Hat Society. It was only natural. Bright red was her favorite color after all. Marlene was a devoted, proud, and open-hearted grandmother to her two grandchildren (sons of her younger daughter), spending many years as a part of their lives. She was especially generous to them as grandmothers often are.

Marlene had a practical talent for various forms of artistic textile work, most significantly crocheting, an activity which she put much of her naturally high-strung energy into during her years in retirement. She eventually became heavily involved in the Vilonia Senior Center as an exercise instructor, teaching elders exercises such as chair-aerobics, and led senior workout sessions.

Marlene spent her final years in her family’s home in Vilonia with her husband, and eventually her oldest daughter Gloria, who looked after Marlene and Earl as their health began to fail. Marlene was preceded in death by her husband, Earl Guyer, and her brother, John Strong. She is survived by daughters, Gloria Guyer and Mary Bauer, Mary’s family, Michael Bauer, Landis Bauer and Vincent Bauer and her sister Jean Strong-McDaniels.

Marlene loved to wear bright red. She liked small whimsical trinkets, brooches, and decorations with which to adorn her life. Her favorite animal was a ladybug. She was always a woman of enthusiasm, optimism, and whimsy. She was quick to laughter and slow to scorn. Misery and negativity shed off her quickly. She was humble and open; robust but sweet, and wanted egoless connection with nearly everyone around her.

A memorial service for Marlene will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday November 22nd at the First Presbyterian Church in Beebe located at 907 W College St.

Say not in grief that she is no more, but say in thankfulness that she was.

– Hebrew proverb