Marilyn Paulette Hillian, retired social services agency director, dies at 86

Marilyn Paulette Hillian, a retired social worker and YWCA regional director, died on Wednesday, July 6, 2022. She was 86.

She was born on Aug. 20, 1935, in Cheraw, South Carolina, and was the eldest daughter of eight children born to the late Paul Aster Hillian and Mary Lillian Parson. Her family relocated to Chesterfield, South Carolina, where Hillian and her siblings were raised.

She accepted Christ at an early age and was a member of Drucilla AME Zion Church in Chesterfield and Mother African Zoar United Methodist Church (previously Tioga Methodist Church) in Philadelphia.

Hillian was educated in the Cheraw school system and graduated two years early, in 1955. She furthered her education at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she met her future husband, Edgar Boykin Rivers, and best friend, Francis Bryce. In 1956, she earned her bachelor’s degree in social work and married Rivers on June 23 at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Cheraw.

The couple spent the first years of their marriage in military life at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Zwiebrucken, Germany. In 1958, they returned to the United States and resided in Philadelphia.

Hillian’s first job in social work was when she became a manager at the East Falls projects community center. In the early 1970s, she worked with the YWCA as a regional director. She also earned a master’s degree in social work at Bryn Mawr College.

After completing graduate school, she worked for the Philadelphia school district, directing an experimental teaching and educational program for young mothers who became pregnant before graduating high school.

She was then recruited as acting director for a non-profit social service affiliate called Women’s Christian Alliance (WCA). The WCA’s mission was to support and facilitate permanence for children and advocate for the empowerment of children, youth and families. She propelled WCA from a one-floor operation in a small rowhouse on Broad Street to a new five-story building with welfare and foster care services, a hands-on after-school center for children, and a social service cultural center. She retired from WCA in the mid-2000s.

Throughout her career, she collected numerous awards for her dedication and accomplishments.

“Marilyn was the definition of a true matriarch,” her family said in a tribute. “She genuinely loved her family unconditionally and extended passion, loyalty and deep affection for all that were family and friends. Marilyn’s love and dedication to the family included managing family reunions, holiday gatherings and other events which incessantly bonded the family. We will always remember her for her infectious smile.”

She was preceded in death by her husband, Edgar Boykin Rivers; son, Paul Demal; and brothers, John B. Hillian and Daniel Hillian.

She is survived by her son, E. Bryan (Karen Ann); sisters, Evelyn Marie Byrd (James), Louise Chapman (Lecosta), Rosena Hillian, Carolyn Evans and Diane Hillian; grandchildren, Shaun Hammonds, Paulette Rivers, Katherine Moore and Ezana Rivers; great-grandchild Daelen Hammonds; and other family members and friends.

Services were held on Friday, July 15, at Mother African Zoar United Methodist Church.

Bruce R. Hawkins Funeral Home handled the arrangements.