Marilyn Sidnell Agnew

Marilyn was the first of two children born to Robert and Frances Sidnell in Lakewood, Ohio. Her grandmother and her father both played piano, and Marilyn started lessons at age 5. She played until age 95. Marilyn completed a 5-year program (in 4 years) in music at Ohio Wesleyan in 1947, earning a bachelor of arts in music and a bachelor of music in piano. She minored in organ.

Marilyn married John P Agnew of Ogden, Illinois in June, 1947. Their first two sons were born in Kirksville, MO, where John taught at (then) Kirksville State Teachers’ College. In 1954 they moved to Wellesley, MA, where John taught at Pine Manor College (then a junior college). They had another son and a daughter in Wellesley and eventually bought a home on Denton Rd, where she lived until 2006. During the 50s, 60s, and early 70s, she taught piano lessons in the home. She also took jazz piano lessons in the 70s, to continue developing her style. She played piano throughout her life, resuming a nearly daily practice after the death of her husband in July, 2001. Marilyn had a lifelong love for all music, especially piano solo music.

Marilyn was active for over 50 years in her home church in Natick, MA, serving at various times as organist, choir director, session member, deacon, on the worship committee, etc. When her children were ready to attend college, she worked as Parish and also Rector’s secretary at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Wellesley – the largest in the Boston Diocese. She retired from this position in 1987.

Marilyn enjoyed travel and had been to all 50 states and many countries in Europe. Marilyn and John took their young family on many road trips around the country and to Canada – tenting, cooking on a camp stove, and using road atlases to navigate from one campground (KOA or national park) to the next. The couple continued travel after retirement, including to Scandinavia and through the Panama Canal, among other places.

Besides music and travel, Marilyn enjoyed lifelong relationships with pets – especially dogs. She particularly liked medium to large dogs, with “woolly fur”. She had many dogs and cats, and at age 94 wrote a short children’s book about when she saved the family’s pet rabbit from a neighborhood dog that had absconded with “Sniffer”. This was a 2020 “pandemic project”, though the action had happened in 1966.

At age 80, she moved to Chapel Hill, NC, to be in closer proximity to her daughter, Nancy. There she enjoyed attending Durham Bulls baseball games as well as NC Symphony concerts, and local organ recitals or other musical offerings. She continued to visit her boys: Robert in Las Vegas, James in the Atlanta area, and John in North Attleborough, MA. Marilyn continued her decades-long commitment to exercise. Even after her exercise studio changed its programming, she purchased an exercise DVD and worked with it 4 or 5 days a week, in addition to frequent walks with her current dog in her Chapel Hill neighborhood.

In lieu of any memorial service, Marilyn consented to have a “Century Celebration” in September, 2025, as she approached her 100th birthday. She was well enough to attend the party and piano concert, performed by local musicians and comprising many of the pieces she practiced into her 95th year. Many neighbors and friends were able to visit her at that time, and she enjoyed having had the chance to see all her kids together.

Marilyn was predeceased by her brother, Dr. Robert Sidnell, her parents, and her husband. She is survived by her children: Robert, James and wife Linda, John and partner David (Felix), and Nancy and spouse Karen (Dold). She remembered fondly her extended family: her cousin Dick Jordan, grandchildren Stacey (DeLuca), Liz (Agnew), and Mike (Ferrell), and her great grandchildren Sophia and Angelo (DeLuca) and Tuck and Cole (Ferrell). She also had numerous nieces and nephews whom she enjoyed seeing and corresponding with at Christmas and birthdays.

Gifts in memoriam may be sent to whichever local animal charity the donor may choose.