Marilyn Louise Punke, born Marilyn Hoecker, died 19 September 2026 (age 85) 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 25 June 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 four-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 Bighorn 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 honored 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
Volkswagen camp mobile. For daily lunches, Marilyn pulled squished peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches from her purse, and cooked nightly dinners on a gas camp stove. Later
Marilyn followed her children on their adventures around the world, visiting Europe and
Japan. She and Butch would visit 48 states.
Marilyn 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; three children – Michael Punke (Traci), Amy
McManamen (Mike), and Tim Punke (Lori); eight 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 at the Torrington Country Club on
Monday, 28 September from 2:00-4:00, with brief remarks at 2:30.