Ella Marjorie Stevens

Ella Marjorie lived her life within a 30-mile radius of where she was born. She touched many lives through her music, her Christianity, her teaching in one-room schoolhouses, and as Sunday School teacher at Cottonwood Creek Community Church for the junior class over a 50-year period. She gave piano lessons, was a 4-H leader and loved teaching the after-school Good News Club for eight years, which first met at Lee Heath's, then Steve and Karen Kirkham's home. She was one of the church organists into her 90s.

Marjorie was born to Clifford Paul and Effie Lucile Gallaher Powell on March 8, 1921, in Leland, just a few miles from her current home of 70 years on Hubbard Gulch near Juliaetta. Marjorie had an early memory of being dismissed from her primary grade class at the Leland School to run see a barnstormer who had just landed his biplane in an adjacent field. The family lived a few years at Cream Ridge, then moved to Lenore near the Sunnyside Cemetery, where Marjorie ran up the steep hill to attend seventh and eighth grade at Starr School. A child of the Depression, things were not always easy and she found solace in playing the piano, which became an outlet for her emotions. Her mother, Effie, could tell whether Marjorie was happy, angry or sad. Marjorie became a sought-after pianist for high school groups and churches in Juliaetta as she lived with her great-uncle George Calvert's family to attend ninth grade, and later when she worked for room and board in Lewiston where she attended high school, graduating in 1938. She played for high school chorus and was honored to be elected to L-Cube, a school service club. She earned her teaching certificate at North

Idaho College of Education in 1940.

The one-room schoolhouse at Stony Point was significant as the place for her first year of teaching, the place where she met the neighborhood bachelor, Glen Stevens, (the one with the most beautiful blue eyes), and as the place half a mile away from the house that became home for Glen and Marjorie their entire married life. She also taught third and fourth grade for two years at Winchester, then fourth grade for one year in Nezperce before marrying Glen on Aug. 31, 1944. Her great-uncle George F. Calvert performed their wedding at Cream Ridge, as he had done for Clifford and Effie 25 years to the day earlier.

Besides being charter members of the Cottonwood Creek Community Church, Marjorie was active in the Friendship Quilting Club. The club would meet at different homes, hand stitching many gorgeous bed-size quilts while they visited and enjoyed lunch together. They never met during the summer as all of them were farm wives, busy with garden produce and making huge dinners complete with fruit pies for the hired farmhands. The Friendship Club has lost most its members, but their legacy lives on, as many of us still enjoy the comfort and beauty of their work. Marjorie loved piecing quilts, won awards at the quilt shows and was always planning the next one (to use up her stash).

Marjorie was preceded in death by her parents, Clifford (in 1963), Effie (Feb. 4, 1998, just five days shy of her 100th birthday); her husband, Glen (April 10, 2002, age 98); one daughter, Glenda Fern Carpenter (March 1, 1971, age 25); a sister, Neva; and an infant brother.

She is survived by her other daughter, Linda Louise Van Dellen (Clarence), living in Sandpoint, Idaho; a sister, Carol Beth Glass (Tom) from Boise; and son-in-law Richard Carpenter (Lynda) from Turlock, Calif.; grandson Wesley (Shannon) Carpenter living in Cool, Calif.; with six of Marjorie's great-grandchildren, Sarah, Hannah, Jonathan, Sophia, Joshua and Eliana. Marjorie became a great-great-grandmother in November 2015, when Wes' other daughter, Emily (Jeff Lomas) gave birth to Tucker. She is also survived by granddaughter Stephanie (Greg) Leigh of San Diego; with two great-grandchildren, Dorian and Georgia; and grandson Dan (Sarah) Carpenter of Turlock; as well as nephews Tom and Bill Glass; her church family; and friends from her water exercise class at Adcope in Lewiston. She has been especially appreciative of Todd and (great-niece) Leah Hill, St. Joe's Hospice staff, Erica her caregiver, and other supportive neighbors who were willing to help her remain in her home as long as she could.

A memorial service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at Cottonwood Creek Community Church. Burial will follow at Sunnyside Cemetery in Lenore.