Marilyn (Moore) Moore

Marilyn Ruth Moore, aged 91, passed away peacefully of heart failure on June 17, 2026. A vibrant woman of notable intelligence, dear to many friends and relations, she will be greatly missed.

Born and raised in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the youngest of four children of a town policeman, she excelled in drama and the arts, earning a scholarship to Oberlin College. After two years there, she returned home to help her ailing father and completed a B.S. in Drama at Carroll College. She then spent a year in New York chasing an acting career, selling shoes at Bonwit Teller by day and taking acting classes by night.

Back in Waukesha, she met and married William F. Connell, whose job brought the family — eventually including son William and daughters Ann and Shawn — back to the New York area, settling in Manhattan and Bronxville. She taught part-time at a Montessori school while continuing to pursue acting, landing a memorable role in a 1965 TV ad campaign for Baggies (“Fresh as the day I bought it!”). In Bronxville, she spent fifteen years with the Seven Arts Theater Group, starring in or directing productions including Barefoot in the Park, Death of a Salesman, Hedda Gabler, Of Mice and Men, The Fantasticks, and The Rainmaker.

In 1970, determined to spare her children another corporate uprooting, she separated from her husband and entered publishing — first as a copywriter at Christian Herald magazine, where she launched its monthly book club, then at Guideposts magazine as a writer and editor. After a stint with Connecticut publisher C.R. Gibson, she returned to Guideposts as publisher and editor-in-chief of its new trade imprint, Guideposts Books.

During these years she wrote the book Formerly Married (later republished by Bantam), drawing on her own experience to counsel women facing divorce or widowhood — published under the name Marilyn Jensen, after her second husband, Bruce, though that marriage ended in estrangement three years later.

While still working full-time, she launched her own agency representing illustrators and writers to publishers worldwide. After retiring from Guideposts, she continued that foreign-rights work and returned to the stage, performing with the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and in experimental off-Broadway productions. A longtime member of Actors’ Equity and SAG, one of her greatest joys was taking her grandchildren to Sardi’s for lunch and then to a Broadway show.

In 2022 she left her beloved terrace apartment on 63rd Street in Manhattan for an independent living community in Lenox, MA, to be closer to her daughter Ann.

She is survived by her son William John Connell (Nikki), daughters Ann Connell Smith (Kenneth) and Shawn Moore Smith (Craig); grandchildren Emmalyn Smith Gaertner (Steve), Bram Bergeron-Smith (Julia), Zoë Connell, Livia Connell; and three great- grandchildren, Eliana, Theo and Finn Gaertner

A celebration of her life will be held by family and friends at noon on July 20, 2026 at Trinity Church, 88 Walker St., Lenox, MA. Donations in her memory may be made to The Barrington Stage, in care of the Kelly Funeral Home, 3 Main Street, Lee, MA 01238.