Hylebos Wetlands activist and Federal Way resident

Ilene Marckx dies at 88

This article courtesy of the Federal Way Mirror

By Tammy Batey

Failing health sapped Ilene Marckx of her characteristic strength during the last months of her life.  The 88-year-old woman, who died Monday (August 30, 1999), relied on her caretaker to feed, bathe and dress her and clung to the younger woman's arm as she walked from her bed to her chair, from her chair to her bed.

Her memory grew just as feeble, robbing her of such basic facts as her siblings' names and boiling down her parents' personalities to a single word - 'mean' for her father, 'nice' for her mother.  Frustrated, she would shake her head as if to shake out the memories.

But visitors who led Marckx into her front yard soon discovered the woman boasted the strength - and determination - of her pre-health problem years when it came to West Hylebos State Park, whose entrance sat just yards away from her house.

Her heart and body tugged her toward the 58 acres of wetlands that she and her husband helped preserve in the '80s.  On an afternoon a few weeks before her death, she tried to convince her caretaker and a friend to walk with her on the boardwalk through the nearby park.  "Come on, you guys," she said, impatiently pulling at their hands. "Let's go."  

Friends say singular purpose was characteristic of Marckx's attitude toward Hylebos State Park, the preservation of which she called "the long, bloody struggle."  She and her husband, Francis, who died about five years ago, donated 23.5 acres of their land in 1981 to start the park, then cajoled and badgered state politicians and officials to purchase more acreage.  Although the state parks department has no deed on file, it appears the Marckxs also intended to donate another 10 acres of their property toward the park as well, boosting the acreage to 68.

"You have to have that kind of single-mindedness to get something like that done," said Kathy Olson, Marckx's daughter.

Marckx was best known for her strong love and dedication toward the park, but her interest in nature encompassed everything from taxidermy to botany.  She owned hundreds of books on topics ranging from mosses to butterflies and loaned them to fellow nature lovers.

Sometimes abrasive and frequently stubborn, Marckx nevertheless impressed fellow wetlands lovers with her commitment.  She kept a regular correspondence with experts in all scientific areas, and called friends and acquaintances for assistance to meet her goals.

When Marckx called, she'd seldom waste time with pleasantries, said Jim Cron, president of the Friends of the West Hylebos Board of Directors.  Instead, she'd immediately ask for whatever help she desired and pause to hear whether the person said "yes" or "no."  "You didn't want to do that," Cron said, of the latter response.

Tenacity is what Cron will most remember about Marckx.  "She stuck to what she believed in," he said. "She wasn't afraid to ask people for help if she thought a politician or a person should do something." 

"She kept on with these things for years and years," he said. "Eventually, she got the results she was looking for."

Even as a child growing up on a wheat farm in Cheney, Wash., Marckx expressed a fascination toward the life that teemed in the outdoors.  "When my family couldn't find me, they'd know I was in the woods," she told friend Chris Carrel during an interview he conducted in April 1998.  "It's just (been) that way all the time."

She graduated from Washington State University, then known Washington State College, with a bachelor's of science degree in zoology.  She was one of only two women in the Zoology Department; the other one married the professor.  After graduation, she taught biology and English in Sequim.

While in college, she met Francis.  They married.  They moved to Federal Way, onto a 60-acre property where the QFC store sits now, in 1944 and opened a farm store.  They bought property near and including the wetlands in the '50s, but didn't know what they had until Francis explored it one day.

Francis had wondered why the cattle would only venture so far into the property.  That day he received an answer in the form of the wetlands.  He raced back to their house to tell his wife of his discovery and they spent the rest of the day exploring.

"It seemed like a wonderful wonderland," she told Carrel, "much like it is today."

From then on, Marckx wanted to see the land preserved as a park and made sure everyone she spoke to knew of the cause.  "We were always beating the drums," she told Carrel.

They decided to push for the state to take on the project.  The Marckxs wanted an interpretive park, more a focus of the state parks department.  The first trip through the Legislature, in 1982, failed because the governor said $900,000 was too much to spend on the park.  A second attempt, in 1983, also failed, though the price dropped to $600,000.

The Legislature approved purchase of the park in 1984 for $300,000 and three pieces of property.  The Marckxs donated 23.5 acres for the park.  The park boardwalk follows the original trail the couple blazed in 1971.  The Friends of the West Hylebos Wetland, of which Ilene Marckx was vice president, continues efforts to preserve the park and educate people about it.  Carrel serves on the group's board of directors and was one of Marckx's friends.

Marckx's dedication to the park was clear every day of her life after she and Francis discovered the wetlands, Carrel said. He calls her "an evangelist for the wetlands."

"It's kind of like describing how into Catholicism is the pope," he said.  "It really was one of the central focuses of her life when she discovered it was there.  I truly think she found the place on Earth she was supposed to be there."

During trips through the wetlands together, Marckx was like a kid in a candy store, Carrel said, but one "who knew all the kinds of candy and how they all tasted."  Her attention darted from one discovery to the next and she knew plenty about each.

Cron agrees with that assessment, recalling all the details Marckx pointed out during trips he took with her through the park.  "She'd see things I wouldn't see," he said.  "She had an eye for that."

Carrel recalls the last time he spoke with Marckx.  He told her Seattle Weekly readers had picked Hylebos State Park as the best urban nature walk in the Seattle area.  Marckx's eyes lit up with happiness, belying her no-fuss words.  

"She shook her head.  'Yes, I can't imagine.  I can't imagine they'd make such a fuss.'"