Mary Marge Jessup | obituaries
May 14, 1932 – Nov 6, 2022
Mary Marge Jessup, 90, of Dallas, Oregon, passed away peacefully on Nov. 6, 2022.
Marge was born on May 14, 1932, to Mary Christine and Elroy Erickson of Siletz, Oregon. After graduating from Siletz High School in 1950, she married a sailor, John Mercator Jessup, who swept her off her feet while working nearby on a trawler in Newport, Oregon.
Marge’s life as a young Navy wife immediately ushered her to the opposite shore, to Rhode Island and soon after to Washington DC, Virginia, Illinois, and Southern California. The transient life of a Navy wife did not trouble Marge. She was always fast to make friends and quickly became an active part of any community with her warm, disarming smile, her six-foot tall presence, and her sincere interest and concern for others. She was a wonderful listener, a rare and beautiful gift she shared with all who knew her.
Fifteen years and a son and daughter later, Marge and John settled back on the Oregon Coast in Siletz. She worked as a cook for the local school, and helped John run a hardware store. As a mother, Marge exemplified unconditional love and warmth, while managing to enforce firm expectations. Her son and daughter knew they were loved, so deeply it felt tangible.
In 1975, Marge moved to Cook, Washington, in the Columbia Gorge, to care for her mother-in-law on John’s family homestead on Drano Lake. Marge made many new friends in the Cook and Hood River communities during their decade there and became an active grandmother to her first grandchildren. After selling the homestead to the government, she moved to the Vancouver, Washington area, where she became an active member of Brush Prairie Baptist Church for 27 years, and took up oil painting. When she wasn’t canning and preserving her extensive garden harvest, Marge was always giving to and visiting others. She made regular rounds to home-bound and sick friends, bringing food and friendship and words of encouragement. She never failed to send a card – so many cards – to all her dear friends and family all over the United States.
When the large property in Vancouver became too much for Marge and John to handle, they moved again for the last time to Dallas, Oregon, near their daughter, Chris Elliott. Marge attended Dallas Evangelical Bible Church, joined the Red Hat Society, and led a Bible study into her late 80s. She made many new and dear friends, and despite many health challenges and battling chronic pain, she was never one to pass up the chance to be social and connected to others.
Perhaps what is most remarkable about Marge is she just never complained. She was always positive and lived a life rooted in contentment and gratitude to God. In her last breaths, despite all of her years of chronic pain and suffering, she spoke of nothing but gratitude for her good life, her dear friends, her children and grandchildren, and for her husband–all blessings to her.
Marge was preceded in death by her husband John and all six of her siblings.
She is survived by her daughter Chris Elliott and son-in-law Bruce; her son John Jessup and daughter-in-law Rebecca; and her six grandchildren: Mindy, Jennifer and Jeff Chaffin, Olga Wolf, Brisa and Sierra Jessup; and six great-grandchildren.
Services were held at Dallas Mortuary on Nov. 10 at 2 pm
Marge will be buried alongside her husband at Evergreen Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Vancouver, Washington.