MARJORIE CATHERINE MORRISSETTE

Was born in Ryegate, Montana on June 2, 1921 and died in Irvine, California on August 2, 2007. A lifelong nonsmoker, she died at the age of 86 of respiratory failure due to interstitial lung disease.

Marjorie’s childhood was strongly influenced by the great depression that forced her attorney father to migrate with his family around the northern Midwest looking for work. The family suffered many privations until they finally settled in Millersburg, Indiana where her father found a steady job working for the railroad.

Although she was shy and sheltered, Marjorie was eager to experience more of the world than she could in the small town of Millersburg. In her early 20s, she moved to Southern California and got a job at the El Toro military base. There she was swept off her feet by a handsome and charismatic marine whom she married in 1946. Eleven difficult years and three daughters later, Marjorie divorced.

The next two decades were consumed with raising her three daughters; providing for all of their needs entirely on her own. Marjorie worked as a bank clerk, copy editor with the Globe Herald/Daily Pilot newspaper, public relations assistant, and in several clerical positions over the years.

When two of her girls were accepted into Cal, Marjorie relocated the family to Berkeley so that they could afford to go to college while living at home. Marjorie instilled in her daughters the values she held dear: a respect for education and a strong belief that women should be independent and self-sufficient.

Once her girls were grown, Marjorie concentrated her energies on her own education, both academically and through extensive travel. While working full time, she took college classes, transferring to U.C. Berkeley as a junior. She continued to take one class each semester until she graduated with a BA in Political Science in 1988 at the age of 67!

Marjorie is survived by her three grateful daughters, Barbara Morrissette of Oakland, Janis Morrissette of Lake Forest, CA, and Robin Hoffman of St. Albans, ME, her five grandchildren, Benjamin, Adam, Katherine, Elizabeth, and Caroline, and two great grandchildren, Jack and Bailey.