Marilyn Seven

Marilyn Seven, of New York City and formerly of Amarillo, Texas, died peacefully at home in Kingston, New York on December 17, 2025. Born Marilyn Matney in Borger, Texas, she changed her name to Seven in honor of her birth date, 7/7/’37. The daughter of Roy Matney and Irma Taliaferro Matney, she grew up in Amarillo, deeply rooted in the Church of Christ. She earned her BA from Abilene Christian University and her MA in religious education from Union Theological Seminary in New York and Columbia’s Teacher’s College. An artist, she worked to support her practice, most importantly as the type-setter for the journal of opinion Christianity & Crisis.

In New York, Marilyn was engaged with several congregations over the decades: American Baptist, Episcopal, and Greek Orthodox. She also held a deep appreciation for both Jewish and Buddhist traditions. She expressed her searching, her passions, and her beliefs through her art work: a decades-long engagement with Georges Rouault’s Miserere, meditative works of saturated black, a series of Torture Paintings provoked by U.S. support for oppressive regimes in Central America in the 1980s. She was a brilliant, introspective artist who was moved deeply by the wounded world. She wrestled with the notion of God and the meaning of human existence. With a fierce integrity, she didn’t look away from what troubled her and called for us to love one another.

In 2023, at the initiation of her husband Theodore Yanow, Marilyn Seven gifted her life’s work to Union Theological Seminary. Her first solo exhibition was held in April, 2025 at the 81 Leonard Gallery in Tribeca, New York. A fellowship in her name has been established at Union Theological Seminary to annually support a student pursuing study in religion and art.

Marilyn is predeceased by her husband of 56 years, Ted Yanow, her brother Roy Matney Jr. and her nephew, Roy Matney III. She will be buried on January 5, 2026, through the Cox-Rowley Funeral Home in the Llano Cemetery, Amarillo, Texas. A memorial service will be held later, at Union Theological Seminary in New York.