Memorials › Marcella Jean "Marki" Horn Thompson
Marcella Jean "Marki" Horn Thompson
9 Feb 1925 – 22 Feb 2022
| Birth | 9 Feb 1925 |
| Death | 22 Feb 2022 |
| Cemetery | Grace Hill Cemetery Perry , Noble County , Oklahoma , USA |
| Added by | L A McKenzie on 26 Feb 2022 |
| FaG | https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/237071934 |
Gravesite details
Ashes placed in Memorial Garden 501 W. Cleveland St, Fayetteville, AR. Foot stone placed in Perry, Oklahoma at foot of parents' grave.
Bio
Marcella Jean Thompson, February 9, 1925 – February 22,2022 Marcella (Marki) Thompson, widow of Lyell Floyd Thompson (1924-2014), died quietly in Little Rock, Ark., surrounded by love, kindness and attention from her children and the staff of House of Three and Kindred Hospice. She was born at home to Andrew and Amelia Horn, on a wheat farm 12 miles north of Perry, Okla. (Ceres/Red Rock). Her sister, Marjorie Loraine, was born two years later and the girls were constant playmates in the farmyard and fields surrounding their home. The sisters rode in a wagon, and later on a horse named Midget, to the one room Pleasant Valley schoolhouse which her father had attended. Marki established herself as a straight A student. After completing eighth grade she boarded with an aunt and cousin 12 miles from home to attend Perry High School where she continued earning straight As, except for the B in typing class. She also met her future husband in the ninth grade, on the first day of school, who always referred to her as "the smartest girl in class." After graduating from Perry High in 1942, Marki attended junior college in Tonkawa, Okla.where she majored in Pre-Med. She had a dream to be a physician. But there was a war and after the war there was a man she loved who wanted to get married and start a family immediately (like so many returning soldiers) and so her dream was deferred for a little while. She worked for the war effort testing aviation fuel in the laboratory of Continental Oil in Ponca City, Okla. And, in 1946, her high school sweetheart returned from wartime military service in Europe and within two weeks Lyell and Marki married. From 1946 until 1957 Marki and Lyell lived in Stillwater, Okla., and began their family. They lived in Columbus, Ohio, and then in Ardmore, Okla. and when they made their final move, in 1957 to Fayetteville, AR, they had five children. Fayetteville was a university town but parenting kept her from returning to complete her Bachelors degree until her youngest child entered elementary school. Because here was no medical school in Northwest Arkansas and she couldn't envision leaving her children for 4 to 8 years to pursue her original dream, she majored in zoology, a discipline that had always interested her. She was encouraged by her professors to continue on toward a Masters degree and she, practical person that she was, decided to pursue a masters in elementary education. She knew she would be able to find a job upon graduation, that she had already amassed considerable knowledge about how to encourage and nurture children, she wouldn't have to move away from the family for a job and that she would earn some money to help with family expenses and to build savings. She soon began a 20-year career as a teacher at Asbell Elementary. She loved teaching fourth grade and former students told her, over the years, how fondly they remembered her classes and the many homeroom pets they had (rabbits, guinea pigs, snakes, etc.). Marki's five children include Andrea Jean Bevernitz (Kurt), Andrew Mark Thompson (Susan), Susan Amy Sklar (Charles), Lyell Kent Thompson and Kevin Craig Thompson (Dana). She and Lyell also raised three grandchildren, Emily, John and Ellen Thompson. Altogether she had 11 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. While she was busy as a mother and a teacher, she also entertained a constant string of visitors to the University of Arkansas campus who Lyell brought home for planned and impromptu meals & conversations. For years, every weekend, she would drive to Perry, Okla., to visit with and help her aging parents. She spent hours every day at the bedside of her sister, Loraine, when she was terminally ill. She served as secretary at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Fayetteville and taught Sunday school there as well. Her skills and interests included animals, sewing, woodworking, home maintenance and design, gardening, painting, baking and cooking festive meals with a focus on Provencal France. She also kept the Czech family tradition of baking kolache each holiday season. She and her family travelled throughout the 50 United States and overseas. She was mesmerized by Denali in Alaska and delighted in the beauty of Hawaii. She loved the perched villages and lavender fields in Provence and the poppies and cypress trees in Tuscany. She enjoyed the history of the Czech Republic, the neatness of northern Germany, the magnificent topography of Ecuador and the culture and handiwork of Thailand. Marki's primary interests were focused on the happiness and comfort of her parents, her husband, her children and grandchildren. She always made time to do what they needed or wanted. Her daughter, Susan Sklar, upon learning that her mother's life was coming to an end, wrote this poem: Both Sides Now (with thanks to Joni Mitchell) When the news came the barometric pressure shifted. The atmosphere was suddenly heavy. I pressed the Pause Button. Mom is beginning her transition, and from a distance, I stand vigil. Mom grew up on a sharecropper-type wheat farm. When I look at old photos, everything is tinged brown. Safe, yes. Hard work, yes. A love filled house, definitely. The dust bowl effect of Oklahoma left sepia in every memory. But then the war was over. Dad came home. They were quickly married. Children became mom's 1950s playground and our childhood years were magical. Rows and flows of angel hair And ice cream castles in the air And feather canyons everywhere I looked at Mom that way. A private family service is planned in the Spring. Cremation has been arranged with A Natural State Funeral Service in Jacksonville, Ark. Memorials can be directed to The Lyell and Marcella J. Thompson Endowed Scholarship Fund, Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, 479-575-4625, University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Ark. 72701. Published February 26, 2022 Arkansas Democrat/Gazette
Inscription
Gentle and Kind
Photos
Family
Parents
Spouse
Siblings
Export GEDCOM
This person only · Entire connected family