Look and Listen

Biography

Marlys Marshall Styne was born on a farm near Whitewater, Wisconsin, in 1932. She graduated from Luther College in Iowa and earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. Now a resident of Chicago's Old Town, she taught English at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago for forty years, 1959-1999. There she served as department chair for seven year and was Wright's Distinguished Service Professor for 1995-96. Marlys was married for nearly thirty years to Julian H. (Jules) Styne, co-owner of the Old Town Pump singles bar in the 1960's, who retired in 1992 after twenty-two years as a Deputy U.S. Marshall in Chicago. He died in 2000. Marlys Styne enjoys writing, reading, opera, theater, walking, and travel. She writes for the eGenerations and Elders Tribune web site and for her own blogs, "Never too Late!" and "Write your Life!" She is a member of the Authors Marketing Group, Illinois Woman's Press Association, Story Circle Network, and Chicago Writers Association, and a volunteer at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Inspiration

My mother, Violet Marshall Funston (1911-2007) who worked hard to complete college in her fifties and wrote her life story at age 86. The eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century English and American authors whom I spent a lifetime reading, but can never hope to emulate.