Posted on 11/28/2004 8:30:23 PM PST by nickcarraway
Leta Marshall was pulling for the Grand Old Party in the November elections.
Which isn't remarkable until you consider she was born three years before one of the best-known Republicans of the 20th century - Theodore Roosevelt - even took office.
"She said, 'I don't know what we're going to do if the Democrats get elected,'æ" said Karen Pritchard, a granddaughter who lives in Sycamore. "So I got her a Bush/Cheney yard sign."
Marshall, a lifelong St. Charles resident, died Wednesday at the age of 106.
Marshall, who was born on a St. Charles farm, lived in her own home in St. Charles despite her advanced age.
Marshall did not want to live in a nursing home, and her children honored that request. Up until Tuesday, she was living with her dog, Bud, a gift from Pritchard, and a caretaker.
Her grandson Lonnie Marshall lived about a block away from her in St. Charles. After he finished working the third shift, Lonnie drove his grandmother, who never had a driver's license, to a senior citizens program.
"She liked it and that was one of my favorite memories," he said. "She loved doing her crossword puzzles and word searches and keeping her mind sharp."
She was also quite the jokester, Pritchard said.
"Her favorite was I would say, 'How do you feel grandma?' and she would say 'With my fingers.'æ"
Marshall would sometimes tell her children about the days when she was growing up.
One was about how she would heat up bricks, wrap them in towels and use them to keep their feet warm when traveling to church in a horse-drawn buggy, said her son, Marcus.
Marshall's primary duty on the family farm was bringing the cows across Ferson Creek, a task that scared her to death because she couldn't swim, Marcus Marshall said. So she resorted to finding the creek's shallow parts and walking them through there.
Born at a time when there were no cars, radios, televisions or computers, she saw the world we know today as it was being invented.
"She lived in a transformation age when you went darn near the stone age to modern society," Marcus said.
Marshall attended school in Wasco and graduated with the class of 1917 from St. Charles High School. Before she graduated, she took a teacher's exam and was eventually placed at a school in Gilberts. Her second assignment was in rural St. Charles.
She married Marcus F. Marshall in 1919, whose father had built a log cabin and settled in St. Charles in 1843. They'd met while they were members of First Methodist Church.
Marshall was a devout Christian, her son said. She never drank alcohol, hardly wore jewelry - except her wedding ring, a crucifix and watch - and didn't believe in smoking.
"She was very mad when I started to smoke at age 16 just before World War II," Marcus said. "She said, 'If you don't quit, why, you'll have to pay me to do your laundry.' So I paid her to do my laundry."
The family was frugal, and instead of changing clothes in a dressing room when vacationing in Lake Geneva, they covered the windows of their Model A Ford with newspapers and changed right there.
"She was strong-willed, so she sort of bossed the whole family around, which is good," Marcus said. "She was quite a gal."
Survivors also include grandchildren Sharon Freund and Lynn Marshall; great-grandchildren Sean and Colin Pritchard, Chris and Jody Freund and Corey and Cale Marshall; and one great-great-grandchild, Wyatt Freund. Her husband, Marcus, daughter Marilyn Marshall and son Milton, preceded her in death.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Norris Funeral Home in St. Charles. A graveside committal service will be held Thursday in North Cemetery in St. Charles. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Delnor-Community Hospital Healthcare Foundation, 300 Randall Road, Geneva, IL, 60134, or Congregational United Church of Christ, 40W451 Fox Mill Blvd., St. Charles, IL, 60175.
She's a democrat now
May she rest well with the Lord.
Ha! My grandmother, who would be 100 next year, pulled this on one of her doctors when she was hospitalized... "With my fingers. How do you feel?"
They don't make women (or men, probably) like they used to, that's for sure. Here's to FOUR MORE GOP YEARS, Ms. Marshall!
That's what I was thinking. Don't tell the RATS she's gone.
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