In Memory

Mike Marren - Class Of 1970

Mike Marren

Jerome "Michael" Marren

SOURCE:    Bill Bryan
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

PUBLICATION: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
SECTION: Obits

 

NEWS

 

DATE: May 10, 1993
EDITION: FIVE STAR
PAGE: 03A

A man from west St. Louis County was fatally shot during a street robbery in the Soulard neighborhood early Sunday, hours before he was to take part in his 6-year-old daughter's birthday party.

Jerome "Michael" Marren, 35, was shot in the chest about 1 a.m. at the corner of South 11th Street and Allen Avenue; he was pronounced dead at St. Louis University Hospital.

About an hour after the shooting, police arrested a 28-year-old suspect in another robbery, which occurred nearby moments after Marren was shot. The suspect, a busboy who works in Soulard, was not charged with killing Marren because police said they lacked evidence.

 

Marren was divorced and lived in the 1100 block of Miremont Drive in Manchester. Since 1982, he had been a sales engineer for Johnson Controls Inc., a commercial heating and air conditioning company.

"Mike was my brother, . . . he was one of the best people in the world," said Douglas Marren. "He was one of the nicest people; he was always there to help. Everybody loved him.

 "He was a super man."

The victim was to have attended a family birthday party Sunday afternoon for his daughter, Kelley, who turned 6 Friday. Michael Marren is also survived by another daughter, Alaina, 8.

Police gave this account of the shooting:

Marren and a woman friend, whom police would not identify, had just left a bar in Soulard and were walking to their car when they were accosted by a gunman who announced a holdup.

Marren's friend cursed the robber, shoved her purse at him, and he fired one shot, fatally woundingMarren in the chest, as Marren was reaching for his wallet.

The killer fled with the purse. Moments later, a husband and wife from Nebraska were robbed of about $300 at gunpoint in the same block - the 2000 block of South 11th Street. Neither one was injured.

Police began searching the area. About 2 a.m., Patrolman Cliff Harper spotted and arrested a man driving a car without headlights on near 11th Street and Shenandoah Avenue.

The suspect was issued summonses for driving without headlights and for not having a drivers license. The couple from Nebraska identified the suspect as the man who had robbed them, but Marren's companion did not make a positive identification.

In addition to his two daughters, Marren is survived by his parents, James and Eileen; three brothers, James Jr., Douglas and David; and four sisters, Laura Guyton, Jennifer Kunze, Christa Meiners and MargaretMarren. All of the survivors are from the St. Louis area, except Kunze, who is from the Washington, D.C., area.

Visitation for Marren will be from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday at White-Mullen Mortuary, 118 North Florissant Road in Ferguson. A funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. John & James Catholic Church, 140 North Elizabeth Avenue in Ferguson.

 

Caption: Photo headshot of (Jerome "Michael") Marren



 
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07/24/11 08:35 AM #1    

Louise Ahrens (Rusk) (1970)

 Another one of my neighbors from Broadmere Dr. Life is so unfair, at times! The Marrens lived up the street from us all through our school years, and were still living there when I left the area. They were a large family (larger than ours, with our 6 kids), fun loving and rambunctious. Mike was full of mischief and a little gruff at times, but as Alyson remembers, he was a big teddy bear. Really nice kid. So tragic and such a great loss!


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