After leading a beautiful life filled with amazing experiences, Marilyn Gayle Jacobi passed away on March 18, 2026, at the age of 84. Her family and friends are comforted by the knowledge that hers was a life well lived, and truly an adventure.
After graduating from Daviess County High School, Gayle joined the Women’s Army Corp (WACs) and began her globetrotting. It started with an assignment in Germany. After serving with the WACs, she embraced a life that found her living in such exotic locales such as Hawaii, the coast of Italy, and San Francisco, and her love of travel that took her throughout Europe. She reveled in the foods, music, and cultures she encountered, and passed that enthusiasm on to others, including her son.
Even though she left Owensboro to live that life, Owensboro never left her. She returned home, to be surrounded by family and friends, and ultimately to meet the love of her life, Ken Jacobi. She also began a career in event planning for David Hocker & Associates. After retiring, she was able to devote her time to her real loves: Ken, her family, her pets, and of course her Irises. She spent many, many happy years this way, and passed away peacefully in her sleep.
Along with Ken, she is survived by her sister Betsy Simmons, her brother Leonard Worth’s widow Nancy, her son Brad Johnson and his wife, Ellie, her step children (whom she considered simply as her children) Tim Jacobi and his husband Homer, Wendy Bronner and her husband Steve, Tony Jacobi and his wife Sophie, Jill Vessels and her husband Pat, and her grandchildren Zoe, Lee, Casey, Liza, Ali, Benjamin, Christopher, Mary, Natalie, Aimee, Ryan, Brendan, and Katie.
She was an avid gardener, who raised legendary Irises. She was a fantastic mother, who raised a very fortunate son. She was a wonderful actress, playing the female lead in several community theatre productions. She could beat you in Scrabble, and, in younger years, Tennis. When you were with her, she made sure you knew that you were special, and her affection was always genuine. She was a pet-lover of the highest order, a Den Mother to her son’s scout troupe, and she could decorate a cake that made you not want to ruin it by eating it.
But more than any of this, she was the kind of person you could count on, look up to, learn from, laugh with, and laugh at. She was loved completely by so many and will be fondly remembered and missed by so many more. That’s how you spend 84 years beautifully.
To give her family time to grieve and heal, Gayle’s celebration of life will be announced at a later date and details to be shared at that time.
Care entrusted to Cardinal Cremation Society.