Life Tributes Marianne Agnes Malley Millette

May 1, 1930 - April 19, 2023 Marianne Agnes Malley Millette passed away peacefully on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, to once again be with her beloved husband, Orval “Red” Millette who preceded her in death in 2018. She is survived by her six children and spouses, Tim (Diane), Yvonne, Tom (Joanne), Joe (Jennifer), Tony (Dean), and

Ted (Cindy) along with her grandchildren (Amanda, Emily, Lauren, Jack, Will, Cole and Aricela). Marianne is also survived by her sisterin-law Betty Embrey and many nieces and nephews from the Malley and Millette families.

Marianne was born in Oakland and grew up in Lafayette, the third of four children, to Charles and Lucille Malley. The Malley family has been residents of Lafayette for over 100 years, as her Oakland native grandfather purchased a few hundred acres in Lafayette for a pear orchard, called Peardale Ranch, in the early 1910s off of Upper Happy Valley Road. The Great Depression had her family move from Oakland to Lafayette when she was two so that her parents could oversee Peardale Ranch. Upon graduation from Acalanes High School, she wanted to go to Art School but her businessminded grandfather paid for her to go to Business School instead. Excelling in the operation of the comptometer, at business school, she was hired at Hagstrom’s Food Stores main office in Oakland. In 1953, while at Hagstrom’s, she met the future love of her life, when a young auditor named Red Millette came to audit the books. They married in 1955 and lived in Oakland for a year before moving back to Marianne’s hometown of Lafayette.

Their first home in Lafayette, affectionately called the “Little House”, was a 600 sq. ft. one-bedroom home on Hough Avenue (which is now the La Fiesta parking lot across the creek/ street from what is now The Cooperage). As the family grew the kids slept in the bedroom with the parents on the pull-out couch in the living room. In 1965, when the Little House couldn’t grow any larger, and their fourth child was on the way, they purchased a vacant lot on Solana Drive in Lafayette, and together with her brothers Chuck and Jack, of Malley Construction, and Marianne and Red on the weekends, they built the house that was their forever home in the hills of Lafayette.

Marianne was an extraordinary wife, mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, godmother, friend, homemaker, den mother, Blue Bird mom, and so much more. Her creativity came out in all that she did …she could sew, knit, embroider, reupholster, re-finish furniture, bake pies, cookies, and cakes, cook, paint, garden, landscape, move wood piles, lay stones for patios or walking paths, keep photo books for each of her children and so much more. Marianne could easily whip up any outfit on the sewing machine from dresses to skirts to hot pants, along with curtains for the kitchen, Halloween costumes, matching Disneyland outfits, aprons, birthday give-away treats, memory pillows, fabric bunnies and all their clothes, Christmas trees, quilts, lap blankets, and so much more.

No thrift store or garage sale could be passed by because “you never know what you will find”. Marianne, along with her sister Patty Lou, always seemed to find hidden treasures in others’ discarded items. And with these treasures, she would strip and sand the furniture to show off the “good bones”. After the children were out of the house and with more spare time on her hands, Marianne started going to upholstery class with all her new treasures. Given the years of classes she took we are sure she is considered to be at a Black Belt or Masters level of reupholstery. Almost every room in her home has a repurposed treasure proudly displayed.

Sports were big in the Millette household and Marianne herself was an exceptional athlete too. While Red coached the kid’s team for 19 years, Marianne was the team mother, carpool driver, sitting in the stands watcher, uniform washer, and listener to replays of the game or strategies for the next game. She was also class mom numerous times at St. Perpetua School as well as being the cupcake lady, yard duty mother, and Helping Hands volunteer. From her yard duty time, she fell into a mini business of her own watching St. Perpetua children after school. In the morning hours, after getting the kids off to school, Marianne would venture out with her walking buddy Fran Sheehan to meander around town or down the Bike Trail that use to be the Sacramento Northern railroad tracks during her youth.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, May

20, 2023, at St. Perpetua Catholic Church in Lafayette, CA, with a reception in the Church Hall immediately following. Please join us in celebrating our wonderful mother, we were so honored to love. We are grateful she had a very full and healthy life. She will be missed but we are fortunate to have so many treasures she made to carry us forward. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Marianne’s name to the Lafayette Historical Society, P. O. Box 133, Lafayette, CA 94549.