09/21/2021
Marjorie Fern (Agan) Clark, passed away on September 21, 2021, at Westridge Care Initiatives in Knoxville, Iowa.
She was born October 1, 1927, on a farm near Weller in Monroe County, Iowa. Shortly after her birth, Marjorie’s parents, Raymond Jay Agan, and Ferne Elaine King moved their family to a farm north of Columbia, Iowa.
Marjorie always liked school and attended Elm Grove Country School K-8, before moving on to Knoxville High School.
With only a year to go to earn her country school teaching certification, the program was dropped. Not deterred, Marjorie transferred to Chariton High School to complete the program while residing with “Grandma Johnson,” the mother of her future sister-in-law Dolores.
Her first teaching job was at Gosport School and later at Columbia’s larger two-room school. She later taught at Attica’s school and at Melcher-Dallas before moving on to the Knoxville system as an elementary teacher and guidance counselor.
Additional education for Bachelor’s and Masters’s degrees was completed at Drake University and William Penn College.
One day Marj was with her cousin, Corwin Sage, and his fiancé Margaret Clark, in Columbia where she was introduced to Margaret’s brother, a recently discharged G.I. named Fred Ellsworth Clark from Dallas, Iowa. They married on August 16, 1948, and lived in eastern Des Moines.
Both were working and Marjorie was pregnant with their first child when the Reserves called up Fred in early 1951 due to the Korean War. He was assigned to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, so they sold their house and one car in a matter of two weeks, and off he went. Marjorie stayed in Des Moines with Aunt Ethel and Uncle Lester LeFavor.
Son Gordon Fred was born on an icy, stormy February 10. 1951. Marj and Gordon joined Fred in Oklahoma in a few weeks.
Upon release from his Army duties, Fred, Marj, and Gordon returned to a farm north of Columbia. Another son, Scott Dee, was born in Knoxville on March 13, 1956.
Both Gordon (Molly) of Winterset and Scott (Andrea) of Centerville, survive Marjorie. Also grandchildren; Cari (Mike) Hannon of Johnston, Tom (Sarah) of Urbandale, Lindsey (Mark) Mulnix of Washburn, Brianne (Matt) Thompson of Centerville. Great-grandchildren are Tyler and Cole Hannon, Andrew and Nora Clark, Liviya and Caleb Mulnix, Abel, and Graham Thompson. Also, numerous nieces, nephews, and friends also survive.
Marjorie was preceded in death by her husband, Fred Clark; parents, Raymond and Fern Agan; brother, Duane and his wife Dolores Agan; sister, Leta, and husband Bob; sister, Geraldine and husband Claude Heck, Jr., two infant brothers, Dean Jr. and Forest W; parents-in-law, Bill and Mildred Clark; sisters-in-law, and husbands, Margaret and Corwin Sage and Dorothy and Bob Joliffe.
After a long battle with the effects of dementia, Marjorie is again prowling the aisles of craft shows looking for new ideas of pretty items to paint, sew or otherwise assemble. Her weather forecast is clear and sunny, with days alternating between spring (time to plant seeds) and summer (time to enjoy the resulting flowers and cut them into displays to enter many examples in county fair contests).
Memorials may be given in Marjorie’s memory to Columbia United Methodist Building Fund or Columbia Fire Dept.