Marilyn Slaby

Marilyn Slaby died peacefully, surrounded by her family, on 22 October 2026, at the age of 86. Her family did not make the cause of death public. Her death was reported by the Akron Beacon Journal, and her obituary was published by The Billow Funeral Homes.

Visitation was arranged for 30 October 2026 at the Billow Fairlawn Chapel in Akron, with a funeral service there on 31 October officiated by the Rev. Sarah West, followed by interment at Rose Hill Burial Park. The family asked that memorial gifts go to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library of Ohio.

Marilyn Ruth Stanford was born in Akron, Ohio, on 19 November 1939, the daughter of James and Esther Stanford. She grew up in Cuyahoga Falls and graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School. She went on to Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, where she earned a bachelor's degree in education.

Slaby began her working life as a teacher, at elementary schools in Cuyahoga Falls, Northampton and Bath, and taught swimming and preschool at the YMCA in Cuyahoga Falls. She later opened her own business, The Yarn Shop, and owned several small businesses over the years.

In Republican politics she served for around ten years on the Summit County Board of Elections, was vice chair of the Summit County Republican Central Committee and was an elected member of the Republican State Central Committee.

She first entered the Ohio House of Representatives in March 2004, appointed to the 41st District seat after Bryan C. Williams resigned. She lost the general election that November to Democrat Brian Williams by fewer than 300 votes. Her husband Lynn Slaby took the seat in 2010, and when Governor John Kasich appointed him to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in 2012, she was appointed in his place and sworn in on 24 April 2012.

Following redistricting she won the 38th District in November 2012 with about 55 percent of the vote, and she was re-elected in 2014 and 2016. She served on the Economic and Small Business Development, Health and Aging, and Insurance committees. Her votes included repealing the corporate franchise tax, reducing absentee voting days, allowing concealed carry on school property and rolling back energy efficiency standards, and she co-sponsored several bills restricting abortion. She filed for re-election in 2018 but withdrew in February that year, and her term ended on 31 December 2018.

On 23 June 1962 she married Lynn Slaby, who later served in the Ohio House and on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. They were married for 64 years and had three children, Marilynn, Melissa and Chris, and six grandchildren.

She was an active member of High Street Christian Church, where she sang in the choir, played handbells and taught Sunday school. An avid knitter, she made prayer blankets for the homebound, sweaters for her family and personalised baby blankets for friends. In later years she lived in Punta Gorda, Florida, while keeping close ties to Akron.

Slaby followed her husband into the same Ohio House seat and represented her Summit County district for more than six years in total. Her family remembered her above all as a teacher who showed many people how to swim, how to knit and how to care for others, and as the heart of a close family.