About Marge

This photo was taken by Marge much earlier than the one I used for myself, obviously.  At that time, I was serving on USAF active duty in France and Marge had this portrait taken for me as a gift to remember her while I was gone. I have treasured the image ever since, and have several copies in the house to remind me of her.

Moving backward in time, Marge was born in 1939 (almost 1940) on Governor’s Island, in New York harbor where there was an Army hospital since her father was an Army officer.  We have a commemorative cup as a gift from “The Officers & Ladies of Fort Hancock” so I guess that was the official name of the post.

I know that the family moved around as her father was reassigned to different bases, but Marge was not even 2 years old when WWII was declared.  I believe that she, her 2 sisters, and mother lived in the village of Cornwall On the Hudson, New York.  This is, or was then, a charming village close to the Military Academy at West Point.  I know she lived in Japan following WWII, and later in the Dallas, Fort Worth area, following Japan.

Marge, like I, went to a small village school, and also won a NY Regents academic scholarship and a Syracuse academic scholarship and started college at Syracuse University in 1957. We started dating in 1958, married in 1960, and she became pregnant in 1961.  I  was called to serve on active duty in September of the same year and departed for France in October of that year.  Marge finished the semester, then packed her belongings and went to live with her mother and had the baby in the Cornwall Hospital in March 1962.

I was released from Active duty in September of 1962, and we resumed our life together.  Marge received her A.B. degree in 1963 and we quit Syracuse and moved to Binghamton NY in April of 1963.  It was a good move for me, but unfortunately, Marge did not get to do the cap and gown ceremony at Syracuse.  While in the Binghamton area, we had our second child and left for Allentown, PA in the fall of 1969.  We lived there for 10 years, then moved here to Las Vegas.

The children were now in their teens, and Marge’s role as a mother had lessened and she tried a couple of dead end jobs.  Her degree was in English Literature and while a fine humanities study, not too much job demand.  I suggested she try the local Community College to see if they had a job oriented program that could utilize her language skills.  this worked and she got her Associates degree in 1984.  This time we did the cap and gown ceremony and had a reception at home following.  Marge worked as a Legal Assistant for many years and that worked fine.

Marge was very intelligent, talented, and attractive.  From our records, I have learned more about her since she died, than when alive. My fault,  we just did not understand how to communicate well with each other.

Marge began her battle with colon cancer in 2005 and died from it in 2012.  She led a long and productive life, at home and at work, and I miss her so.  She is buried in a Veteran’s cemetery not far from here, and also in her family plot in the little village of Hancock, New York.