Marilyn Louise Punke

June 25, 1941 – Sept. 19, 2026

Marilyn Louise Punke, 85, born Marilyn Hoecker, died September 19, 2026, after fighting a brave battle against cancer. Marilyn lived a long, full and active life and is celebrated by her husband, children, grandchildren, sisters, friends and students. Marilyn is remembered for her love of family, her decades as a teacher, for baking breads, strong opinions, tender affection and unyielding stubbornness.

Marilyn was born on June 25, 1941, in Atchison, Kansas, six months before Pearl Harbor. Her father and grandfather were shoe repairmen, and her mother cleaned houses and sold home-baked pies. Marilyn had a close, lifelong relationship with three sisters and one brother. 

Marilyn loved poetry and could recite long selections from “A Child’s Garden of Verses,” a book her mother read to her during a battle with rheumatic fever as a 4-year-old that required her to stay in bed for a month. 

She lived the best of a small-town American life, active as a cheerleader and a babysitter. She remembered slumber parties with friends, where the entertainment was making homemade onion rings. She worked summers as a “soda jerk” at a main street drug store. She loved clothes, and because the fashions she coveted were too expensive, she learned to sew.

Though grounded by childhood in a small town, Marilyn had an eye on more distant horizons from an early age. She became the first person in her family to attend college, graduating from the Kansas State Teachers’ College in 1963. There she met the love of her life, Butch Punke. Marilyn and Butch married at the end of their junior year and recently celebrated 64 years of marriage. 

There was a teacher shortage at the time of Marilyn’s college graduation, and Marilyn and Butch were recruited to move to a small town called Lovell at the foot of Wyoming’s majestic Big Horn Mountains. Marilyn fell in love with the mountains and the state. She would live in Wyoming for most of the rest of her life. 

Marilyn was a gifted teacher who impacted the lives of hundreds of elementary students in her long career. Learning in Mrs. Punke’s class was never boring or rote. She was passionate about topics like history and taught by bringing her lessons to life. She loved field trips and guided her students in annual visits to Fort Laramie, Register Cliff and the Oregon Trail ruts near Guernsey. 

She brought creativity to her classroom, using her own money to buy Hershey’s chocolate bars to teach fractions in a tangible and delicious way. She sewed individual Christmas stockings and made “candy ribbons” for every student, some of whom had not known such affection in their own homes.

As a mother, Marilyn was a role model in what her children now term “visceral defense of family.” Her love and affection never wavered. Never. Her children and grandchildren have lived their lives knowing that she was always there to support them. Always. 

Marilyn endowed her children with the belief that they could do anything so long as they did the work. She afforded them the leeway to go out and try. Marilyn helped her children navigate milestones such as the birth of their own children. She treasured deep relationships with eight grandchildren. 

Marilyn loved to travel. On teachers’ salaries, and with the opportunity of summers off, Marilyn and Butch led their children on months-long trips across the country, sleeping in a Volkswagon campmobile. For daily lunches Marilyn pulled squished peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from her purse and cooked nightly dinners on a gas campstove. Later Marilyn followed her children on their adventures around the world, visiting Europe and Japan. She and Butch would visit 48 states.

She taught her children that strong beliefs are a virtue. She was active politically and had the courage to champion causes according to conviction, not popularity. 

Marilyn is survived by her husband, Butch; children Michael (Traci) Punke, Amy (Mike) McManamen and Tim (Lori) Punke; grandchildren Jason (Joesie), Sophie, Dani, Ryan, Bowman, Jack, Tucker and Kiki; and hundreds of friends and students. She lives on in all of them.

Marilyn’s family will celebrate her life with friends Monday, Sept. 28, from 2 to 4 p.m., with brief remarks at 2:30 at the Torrington Country Club.