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Obituary

Poet, Mother, Grandmother, and Friend 

Marina Romani died of natural causes surrounded by her family on Monday, February 17th, 2020. Born in Shanghai, China in 1939 to stateless Russian emigré parents, she lived her first decade in Shanghai (including under Japanese occupation during WWII) before the family fled in 1949 during the Chinese Communist Revolution. Adventures as refugees in the Philippines and later Australia followed before her parents obtained passage and eventual citizenship to the United States, where they worked as Russian Language teachers at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey. 

Growing up in Pacific Grove, Marina appeared a typical American teen of the 50’s, but always with a certain Russian flair. At the age of eighteen, she married fellow Russian emigre, Sasha Taurke, with whom she had her two children. Sasha was a career Military Intelligence Officer for the US Army, and for eighteen years she followed him around the world from Thailand to Texas and, finally, back to Pacific Grove. During those years Marina not only raised her children, but also found the time to earn a B.A. and a Masters degree in English Literature despite moving every two years. Though she eventually chafed as an army wife, her travels were a mind opener. Imagine living sequentially in Bangkok, Thailand, the West Point Military Academy, the university town of New Paltz, NY (during Sasha’s year in Vietnam) and Fort Hood, Texas, all during the fertile years of the 1960s and early 70’s. 

After her divorce in 1976, Marina continued raising her children as a single mom while teaching ESL as well as Russian Translation and Interpretation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (currently the Middlebury Institute). After her children grew up and left home, Marina moved to Los Angeles. Initially working as an Instructor in the Russian Language Department at USC, she ended her working career as a Senior Editor at the UCLA Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies. Upon her retirement in 2006, Marina returned to the Monterey Peninsula, enjoying and loving the natural beauty of the Central Coast as well as the closeness to her son and his family. 

In those final fifteen years, Marina developed into a fine poet. She memorialized her Russian/Chinese childhood in a work of poetry and prose, Child Interwoven. A later work, Chiaroscuro Eye, contains more impressionistic encounters with friends and lovers. Both are available on Amazon. Additionally, her work was regularly published in local and regional journals including Homestead Review, Monterey Poetry Review, Poetry Pacific, and Porter Gulch Review. 

Marina’s walks along the coast were legendary, a source for poetry at the deepest level but also a place for connection with like-minded beings, with whom she shared stories, poetry, and “New York New Years” at 9pm on, you guessed it, January 31. 

She responded to the rocks and sea at Tor House in Carmel as well, volunteering as a tour guide for many years and maintaining community with the lovers of that place and of Robinson Jeffers, the poet who built Tor House with his own hands out of found rock. 

She will be missed by friends and colleagues from her earlier educational institutions, her newer poetry circles, and also by her many dear Russian-American friends from the early days in Monterey in the 50s with their own stories to tell. 

Marina Romani is survived by her two children: Elena Taurke and Alexander Taurke, four grandchildren: Vita, Francesca, Elijah, and Madalena, as well as Steve Joseph, Vita’s father, and Shannon Carnazzo, mother of Francesca, Elijah, and Madalena. She is also survived by her ex-husband Alexander (Sasha) Taurke and his wife, Vicki Waters. 

The family is moved by the many people who came forward to say how they were affected by Marina. Her complex personality continues to unfold and influence the way of things; we wish she could be here to feel that with us as we mourn her passing from the material world.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Marina Romani, please visit our floral store.

When words can't fully express what we want to say, sometimes a small gift can. Visit our Memorial Store for personalized gifts, keepsake jewelry and to plant a memorial tree.

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Marina Romani Obituary | Altogether