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Marjorie Collier Poore, 99, of Stillwater, died peacefully Tuesday, May 4, 2021, at Golden Oaks Nursing Home.
Funeral arrangements will be private.
Condolences may be sent to the family and an online obituary viewed by visiting www.strodefh.com.
Marjorie Pauline (Collier) Poore made her 99 year mark on this world allowing five living generations before her death on May 4, 2021. Born on January 20, 1922 in Ardmore, OK, to parents John L Collier and Ethel Ray (Shaw) Collier. As she put it, she outlived most everyone in her family being predeceased in death by her parents and stepmother, Stella (Eggleston) Collier of Enid, OK. Also predeceased by her husband, Wallace W. Poore and daughter, Kathy Poore of Oklahoma City, OK. She adored her older sister Doris Ray Tillman and husband, Bill of Beaumont, TX who also passed prior to her. She is survived by her Son Ferris L Collier and wife Judy of Kimberling City, MO; Granddaughter Terri Collier of Stillwater, OK, Granddaughter Johna Moore and husband Kelly of Shell Knob, MO; Great Grandsons Cory Johnson and fiancée Daryl and son Keegan of Cassville, MO; Kyle Johnson and wife Cheyenne of Cassville MO and two adorable Great, Great Grandsons Jace Johnson and Asher Johnson; and the families of Jerry Collier of California and Gerald Tillman of Texas.
I’m writing this obituary as a story of her life from my viewpoint as her Granddaughter who was able to care for her the last six years of her life. During that time, I got to know her more than I ever had been able to in all our years.
Ms. Marjorie, as so many liked to call her, was a woman who was raised by her father, an oilman. She lost her mother at four years old. Her father moved them to Oklahoma where he married a young lady named Stella Eggleston. Stella and her family helped John raise her and her sister, Doris Ray, on a farm while her father traveled back and forth in the oil fields. Marjorie said that she recalls how difficult the work on the farm was for her. From time to time, she would still complain about her back aches that she swore were caused by carrying milk pales as a young girl. I’m uncertain as to the timeframes, but she ended up in Enid, OK where she attended high school. She married Wallace Poore in 1943 at which time they moved to California where Wallace was stationed in the military.
Her early adult years were difficult on her as she didn’t want to move to California and missed her family. She once said the best thing about California was being able to ride horses on the beach. She said she loved horses as a young lady and rode every chance she got. Her sister moved to California as well with her husband, where they lived until the men finished their enlistments. She told me about her jobs in California as a department store worker and later a dental assistant. She said she really enjoyed working outside the house as the people were very kind to her. She told me she was good at both jobs, but when they moved back to Oklahoma she didn’t work for a while. It wasn’t customary for women to work outside the home when their husband had a good job. At this time, they adopted a daughter, Kathy, in 1954. Once back to Oklahoma, Wallace found employment at the El Reno Penitentiary as a machinist where he would work until he retired at 59 years old. Sadly, he passed away very unexpectedly mere months after his retirement. Before his passing they built a home in 1959 in Oklahoma City where Marjorie lived on her own until 2015.
Marjorie said that once their house was built, she was able to convince Wallace to allow her to sell makeup products from her home and help her aunt Irene, with a stamp machine business. Marjorie’s eyes lit up as she told me about the wonderful makeup parties she would throw inviting ladies into her home to share the newest products, drink from her finest china teacups and share her delicious (I know cause I’ve had them) sandwiches and pastries. Cooking was Marjorie’s number one love language. She baked dozens and dozens of cookies for anyone and everyone. At Christmas, she said she may have baked over a hundred dozen cookies a few years and possibly as many as 50 fruitcakes. I believed her! I once told her how much I anticipated her arrival at Christmas with her giant boxes of assorted cookies. I’d sit and eyeball the boxes until someone opened them and I’d make my way through every single flavor, all except those hideous coconut macaroons. I let her know that while I distracted her at the cookie box, my dad shoveled piles of her delicious oyster laden dressing onto his plate. She laughed and laughed when I shared that story with her. She had a precious laugh and a beautiful smile that she was not afraid to share with anyone.
Although she was an amazing cook her second love language was gardening. She created 5 very large flower beds at her home that she tended year round filled with tulips, irises, roses and naked ladies. These flower beds had such unique varieties of flowers in them that flower clubs would schedule visits to see and learn from them as well as exchange bulbs with her. I’m certain a cookie or two were exchanged as well. She gardened until she was 93 years old. She may have still been gardening and living in her own home if she’d not fallen at that time suffering an injury to her arm. But even then, it didn’t keep her down for long. She moved into an assisted living facility in Stillwater where I could assist with her and her affairs. After one year there, she was able to move into an apartment where she started baking again. Two years ago we made a joint decision it would be best for her to move into Golden Oaks Village where she would have more company and some assistance.
Kindness was an outstanding attribute of Marjorie, but she was also referred to as feisty, independent and strong-willed by those who knew her. As she spent her last few years under the care of those in Golden Oaks Village, she made many friends of the staff members there. Her last weeks with us, the staff shared many stories of her overwhelming desire to do everything she could by herself clear up to the point she fell ill just weeks before her passing. She made her own bed daily, had a standing weekly appointment with her hairdresser, dressed to the hilt in her front creased slacks and matching blouse and always dotted her lips with L’Oreal Sugar Plum #754.
She passed peacefully under the loving care of Golden Oaks and Companion Health Hospice to whom her family is very grateful.
The six years I shared with Marjorie were challenging at times but, more often, rewarding as I learned about this incredibly strong woman. The reason that I didn’t know her prior to this time is because of a long standing family secret. My family found out only a few years ago that Marjorie had been sworn to a lifelong secret. As a young woman, she had gotten pregnant out of wedlock and, in 1942, this was unacceptable. She was sent to an unwed mother’s home in Wichita to have the child. She was then forced to leave her child for her parents to raise as their own and keep this a family secret. This was the real reason that leaving for California was so difficult for her. She was leaving behind a son who was then raised as if he were her little brother. She told me stories of the pain she went through mentally and emotionally through those early years. She wore dentures from the time he was born due to her malnutrition during her childbearing. This child was my father. It has been challenging for him to learn this, but was a relief to Marjorie. She let me know that as much as she hated all the difficult emotions everyone experienced in learning this family history, she was very relieved and grateful that she could enjoy our family as her own. I was grateful that I got to experience her for her final years and learn where my father, sister and I gained some of our mannerisms, independence, stubbornness, grit, good hair and kindness.
My years with my Aunt-Grandma, as I often called her, will live on as a blessing for the rest of my life. Our last few weeks together were special and we had a few exchanges of loving sentiments. Her last words to me were, “Love you Sugar”. We laughed, we shared, we cried and we just held one another. I was able to thank her for going through the pain, emotional scars and heartbreak that she endured to have my father. By doing so, she created five generations in this amazing world of ours. She carried on the Collier name of her father, John, who she loved dearly.
Rest peacefully sweet angel.
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