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 "A few days before his execution, Robert told me that, while not afraid to die, he knew being strapped into the chair and waiting for the switch to be pulled would be hard. So he was just going to keep saying, 'Lord, I'm coming home! Lord, I'm coming home!' "I guess that is exactly what he did, because the next day I found this serene smile on Robert's face, the smile reproduced in this portrait." Ms. Felion continues to paint, to serve food to the poor, and to work for abolition of the death penalty. She is a member of the Associated Artists of Omaha and the Nebraska Association of Art Clubs, where her works have received several awards. She is also co-chair of the Omaha chapter of Nebraskans for Peace, a member of the Faith Committee of Nebraskans against the Death Penalty, an Associate of the Sisters of Mercy, and worships at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Omaha. |
Marylyn Felion Christ as Poor,
Black, Death Row Inmate |
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| Marylyn Felion, born and raised in northern California, loved to draw as a child and dreamed of being an artist. Instead, after earning Bachelor's and Masters degrees in Education, she spent twenty years teaching elementary students. In 1985, after a trip to Nicaragua, Ms. Felion left teaching, and went back to Nicaragua with Witness for Pace. Upon her return, she became a member of a Catholic Worker community in Omaha, and served time in county jails for opposing Contra aid and nuclear weapons. In 1993, Ms. Felion realized her dream of being an artist after receiving a gift of 50.00 for her 56th birthday. "I didn't want this gift to be absorbed in paying bills, so I used it to take a course in watercolor from Omaha Metro Tech. And the flood gates opened." In 1997, as "spiritual advisor:, Ms. Felion accompanied Robert E. Williams to his death in Nebraska's electric chair. "Filled with rage and self-loathing and under the influence of drugs and alcohol, Williams had committed three brutal murders twenty years earlier. But by the time I got to know him, he had become the most God-filled person I had ever met. |
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