Marlene is well known for her historical research, information on cemeteries, and the popular weekly "Out of the Past" column, which has appeared in the Panama City News-Herald for the past 24 years.

Marlene grew up in Linden, N.J.  Her interest in history began with her grandmother who told her stories of the past and took her to historical sites and old graveyards in the New Jersey/New York area. While her husband was in the Air Force and stationed in New Jersey, Marlene and her children visited many of the places in H. Charlton Beck's "Ghost Towns of New Jersey" and his other similar books.

When Marlene moved to Florida in 1973, she read all the old newspapers of this area, a process that took three years.  She indexed more than sixty cemeteries and burial places in the greater Bay County area.  Marlene also attended Gulf Coast Community College and Florida State University, where she took courses in journalism and creative writing, before beginning her weekly newspaper column.

Marlene is the author of several local history books: Along the Bay (1994), The Bay Country (1997), The Rich Heritage of Panama City Beach and Communities of Bay County (2001),  War Comes to Florida's Northern Gulf Coast (2002), Anchor of the Bay (2008), Moonshine Mayhem (2009) and Centennial Stories (2009).