Marjorie was born on July 12, 1921 at the house on the family homestead ranch. Her parents were the late Frank and Marguerite (Burnett) Woodhouse. She had 2 younger brothers James (1924) and Paul (1927). Both her brothers were killed in a plane crash while checking cattle in December of 1955.
Marjorie grew up on ranches in the Castle Rock area. The depression made for difficult times for her and her family. She shared a love of horses with her Grandfather and Dad. She finally talked her Dad into letting her race on the dirt tracks when she was in 6th grade. She participated in a variety of races there and at the county fair until she went to college. She continued her special love of horseback riding through most of her adult life, having to stop in her late 70’s. During her school years she played both the violin and saxophone.
Some of her favorite memories were the times she spent with her Grandma and Grandpa Burnett at their cabin around Shawnee, CO. She learned to love fishing in the streams while with them.
Marjorie graduated from DCHS in 1939. She attended college at what is now Colorado State University; graduating in 1943. She earned a B.S. degree as a teacher in Home Economics. She held a variety of jobs while her husband was away during WWII. She and Leroy raised two girls; Pam (1947) and Mona (1955), starting in Denver, moved to Aurora and then to Franktown in 1964 with her 2nd husband. Marjorie taught Home Economics at Douglas County Jr. High for 25 years, retiring in 1987.
In 1993, she moved with her 3rd husband to Noel, Mo where she built the log house and place of her dreams. She loved the beauty of the area and the fact it rarely snowed there. She and her husband raised purebred longhorns, showing them in their area and TX. They won many awards. She continued to raise the longhorns after her husband’s death until her late 80’s.
Marjorie possessed a strong will and belief that women could do anything they put their minds to. This started as a young girl on the dirt tracks racing horses to daring to wear a pant suit on campus during the winter, continued as she taught many young women and young men at DCJH, into her retirement years, raising cattle by herself and maintaining her independence in her home into her 97th year.
Marjorie is survived by her 2 daughters, Mona Stenson and husband Mark, Pamela Packer and her husband Paul; 4 grandchildren, Katie, Matt, Penny, and Phyllis; 8 great grandchildren, Jaxon, Tegan, Pacey, Kyler, Kinley, Aubree, Drayton, and Morgan.
She would want us to celebrate her life and not be too sad. Not many people can live their life the way they wanted to age 97 ½. In talking about death, she said, “it is just shedding a worn out body that becomes a hindrance and going on with the ‘real you’ to greater things and re-unions.”
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