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Marjorie Ann Garthwaite of Bagley passed away at Great River Care Center on September 14, 2020.\u00a0 She was born the first child of Jesse and Clara Mecum on September 11, 1927. An eternal optimist, she lived a long life with many accomplishments.\u00a0 The grass never grew too long under her feet.<\/p>\n
She graduated valedictorian of her class at the Bagley School and pursued a rural teaching certificate, as teachers were greatly needed at this time. \u00a0This following years, she spent teaching at the rural Glass Hollow School.<\/p>\n
Next, she earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in English Education at the University of Dubuque. \u00a0Her first full time teaching contract was in Boyden, Iowa.\u00a0 Then, a contract came from Garnavillo, Iowa where she could be found arriving by flat bottom boat from Bagley most Monday mornings.\u00a0 There she was greeted by a supportive community, who formed a forensics program.\u00a0 Several of her students received the top award at the state competition.\u00a0 At her father\u2019s urging she applied and was accepted to teach English for the Department of Defense, Dependent Schools located on military bases overseas.\u00a0 Troop Transport ships were dispatched from Seattle to the rocky little atoll of Okinawa, Japan, which is where she found herself teaching and traveling before moving on to Baumholder, Germany. Traveling took on a passion and she spearheaded many treks throughout Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Middle East during school breaks.<\/p>\n
Upon returning to the United States, she matriculated to the University of Wisconsin Master\u2019s Program for a degree in English Education.\u00a0 At this time, she also resumed teaching English at Platteville High School in Wisconsin.\u00a0 Here, she developed the philosophy that \u201cI will teach to please myself and enjoy teaching.\u201d\u00a0 Again, she developed a forensics program and produced several plays.\u00a0 The next teaching job came from Ashira Girls\u2019 School located near Moshe at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, East Africa.\u00a0 Sadly, her time was made short due to her father\u2019s passing and plans to return overseas never materialized.<\/p>\n
Love eventually entered the narrative and she was married to Leland G. Quick on April 5, 1969.\u00a0 The teaching career was retired and a passion for farming was pursued.\u00a0 This was interrupted by the birth of a daughter, Michelle.\u00a0 The marriage was cut abruptly with the passing of Leland six years later.<\/p>\n
She returned to Bagley, taught Sunday school and Bible study, until she married Lloyd O. Garthwaite on December 26, 1980.\u00a0 His small dairy farm in Mt. Hope was the perfect place to enjoy life while still working with the Methodist Church in town teaching a weekly bible study.\u00a0 This continued for twenty years until his death when life brought her back to Bagley.\u00a0 Again, she took up working at Zion Lutheran Church in Bagley teaching bible study and Sunday school.<\/p>\n
Marjorie is proceeded in death by her father and mother, Jesse and Clara (Rewey) Mecum; two husbands, Leland Quick and Lloyd Garthwaite, and her brother-in-law, Robert Barr.<\/p>\n
She is survived by her daughter, Michelle (Quick) and Chris Newhouse, a grandson, Jackson Leland; a granddaughter, Estelle Ann; a sister, Barbara J. Barr, and the Barr children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n
At Marjorie\u2019s request, no funeral services are planned. A small graveside service will take place at a later date.<\/p>\n
Thornburg-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service, McGregor, Iowa is helping the family with the arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marjorie Ann Garthwaite of Bagley passed away at Great River Care Center on September 14, 2020.\u00a0 She was born the first child of Jesse and Clara Mecum on September 11, 1927. An eternal optimist, she lived a long life with many accomplishments.\u00a0 The grass never grew too long under her feet. She graduated valedictorian of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[819],"class_list":["post-9976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-garthwaite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9979,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9976\/revisions\/9979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}