Marilyn Wojnar

Marilyn Wojnar, 101, of Champaign passed away on December 8, 2023, at 12:11 pm at her home.

Visitation will be held at the Owens Funeral Home, 101 N. Elm St, Champaign on Thursday, December 14 from 11am to 12:30 pm. A brief service will begin at 12:30 at the funeral home, presided over by Pastor Chadwick Anderson of the Mattis Avenue Free Methodist Church. Burial will immediately follow at Woodlawn Cemetery, Urbana.

Marilyn was born on a farm in Ayers Township on August 5, 1922. She was the only child of Walter and Lillian (Swick) Divan. Dr. Victor Stanley Wojnar, to whom she had been married for 59 years preceded her in death in 2005.

She graduated from the University of Illinois School of Art and Design in 1944 and continued her art education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia from 1945-46 where she met her husband.

Following her marriage to Victor Wojnar in 1946, she travelled with her husband to Germany where he was on assignment as a medical doctor in the U.S. Army. Her daughter Deborah was born there. Following their return to the States, they lived for a time in Indianapolis (where her son, Christopher was born), then to Philadelphia, PA,  Tupper Lake, NY and, finally, Champaign.

Marilyn was an avid artist and her family has a deep appreciation for the way she captured some of their fondest memories of life together in the Adirondacks of upstate New York. She belonged to artist groups in Tupper Lake and  Champaign, where she joined the Central Illinois Artist League and Studio Group of Champaign-Urbana.

She has deep roots in Champaign County where her grandparents were pioneer farmers. Although her father and mother moved to Champaign to work, they kept close ties to the farming community. Marilyn enjoyed gardening with her son and daughter in law at her farm near Royal. She also had an interest in historical preservation and was successful in having her ancestral home at 212 E. University Ave designated as a landmark by the Champaign Historic Preservation Commission.

Marilyn was a devoted wife and mother who delighted in family ties past and present. She also greatly valued her church family at the Mattis Ave. Free Methodist Church.

She was preceded in death by her son, Christopher. She is survived by her daughter Deborah Wojnar Cox and son-in-law, Michael; daughter-in-law, Mary Wojnar and her grandchildren, Lisa Derosa and husband, Joshua, Gina Wojnar, and husband, Sejun Oh, Charles Stanley Wojnar, and Richard Wojnar, Mark Cox, Ruth Cox Hite, and great grandchildren, Riley, Maleah, and Barack Hite.
 

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