November 25, 2009 at 12:52 p.m.
As a volunteer; 2009 Royal Lady is a multi-faceted gem
As a volunteer; 2009 Royal Lady is a multi-faceted gem
The Andersons would spend part of the winter in Florida, and Marlys traveled with her parents.
It was in the Sunshine State that Marlys met Wayne. They opted to make their home in the St. Croix Valley, however, and the area has been blessed by this decision many times over.
Marlys took a few minutes from her job processing patient accounts for the Hazelden recovery community, to talk with a reporter about the Royal Lady honor.
This year marks 20 years that she's been employed at Hazelden, but her life has overflowed with many career pursuits peppered with volunteer activities in and around Taylors Falls. All of it punctuated by an energetic willingness to pitch in and do whatever she's asked to, according to a festival organizer who is on the Royal Lady selection committee.
Barb Young said Breeden was chosen simply because of who she is.
In any community good things don't just happen, they are nourished by passion and a cooperative can do ethic. Breeden, Young declared, exemplifies these traits. "When the committee zeroed in on her for Royal Lady we all wondered why we hadn't chosen Marlys years ago," Young continued. "She is such an obvious choice."
Marlys has served as a docent at the Folsom House, and has been active in the city's historical society. She has baked bars for Lions events and for bingo nights. Need somebody to sell T-shirts? Marlys will. She has elevated worshippers' spirits playing piano and organ for congregants of First Baptist Church.
Marlys said one of her most fulfilling volunteer roles was teaching English to Hmong refugees swept up in a wave of late '80s and '1990s repatriation. Many Hmong landed in Taylors Falls. Marlys prepped them to pass U.S. citizenship tests as well. A favorite story is that while practicing test questions she told an older Hmong gentleman he'd be asked if he'd had any Communist ties. Oh yes, he assured her, he had. She pressed and found out it was the Central Intelligence Agency he'd been affiliated with in the war in southeast Asia.
She adds, "I am so glad I had that experience. I was honored to learn about their lives and what they'd been through."
Marlys and Wayne Breeden were groundbreakers in Taylors Falls economic redevelopment before it came to be called redevelopment.
The Breedens bought the "Falls Cafe" in 1965 and just about doubled its size, changing the name to "Chisago House" before selling. Many Taylors Falls youth got their first jobs there, and Marlys recalls, "We were really lucky-- we had good help."
When her father passed away she inherited a large structure, an anchor on Taylors Falls' mainstreet. The Livery Mall burned to the ground in a memorable blaze a few years ago. She and Wayne had rehabbed the Livery Mall and it housed many businesses over the years before they sold and it was subsequently lost.
And, somehow, Marlys and Wayne found time to bring up three kids. Daughter Carla has Silver Shears, in Center City, a son is based in Forest Lake and another daughter works for the City of St. Cloud.
Marlys will don the Royal Lady's traditional crimson velvet cape, and welcome festival-goers while riding in an old fashioned sleigh atop a flatbed trailer, in the upcoming Lighting Festival parade. The parade steps off at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27, on mainstreet Taylors Falls. The whimsical event is wedged in amongst arts fairs, musical performances, food vendors and various holiday doings taking place in Taylors Falls all this weekend.
As Royal Lady Marlys will also participate in Wannigan Days in the summer. There won't be much downtime in the near future for this Royal Lady or for her equally civic minded husband, but that's exactly the way they like it.
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