Mary Marjorie Laboone

a Duluth resident for 44-years, died at Edgewood Vista, a Duluth-area assisted living center on Sunday, April 17. She was surrounded by family members including her husband of 63 years, retired Minnesota Conservation Officer Kenneth C. LaBoone, and attended by the staff of Edgewood Vista.

Born November 12, 1926, in St. Paul, Minn., “Margie,” as she was best known to her many friends and relatives, was the daughter of the late Peter H. and Gertrude Schweigel (nee McEachern) of St. Paul, and a cousin of the late Roman Catholic theologian Fr. Ulrich Beste of St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minn.

A life-long Catholic, Margie served the Diocese of Duluth as secretary to the superintendent of Duluth's Catholic schools in the 1970s and '80s.

Introduced by her brother Phillip to a fellow U.S. Navy Sea Bee he met while they were serving together in the South Pacific during World War II, Margie and Ken corresponded during the last year of his combat service and met after he mustered out of the Navy in 1946.

“My mother warned me not to fall for the uniform,” she quipped, decades after their marriage in St. Paul on May 10, 1947.

They began their married life in Aurora, Minn., after Ken was hired as a game refuge patrolman by what was then the “Minnesota Department of Conservation,” now the Department of Natural Resources or “DNR.”

The young couple formed many lasting friendships in their time “up on the Range,” but moved to Hastings, MN in the late 1940s, following the birth of their first son, Kenneth John, in 1948. Four more children followed: James Peter, Kathleen Ann, Patrick Allan, and Mary Rose.

An awesome cook noted for the quality of her cookies and pies, Margie’s home was always an informal gathering place for family and friends. These included her husband’s fellow law enforcement officers, and local sportsmen who liked to hang out for coffee, food and the latest news of the outdoors.

Outside the home, Margie's considerable artistic talents found an outlet among the original members of Hastings' Palette Club. Her skills were developed under the instruction of Don Koestner, the informal “dean of Minnesota's landscape painters.” Don and his wife Fern became life-long friends of the LaBoones, even after the latters' move to Duluth in 1966, following Ken's promotion to area supervisor of DNR's law enforcement activities in Minnesota’s Arrowhead region.

After her retirement from the diocese, she spent her time taking care of her home and flowers, visiting with friends, traveling, reading mysteries, enjoying the birds and squirrels at her bird feeder, and walking at the mall. She especially enjoyed spending time playing and singing with her grandchildren.

Margie was preceded in death by her parents, and all six of her siblings: Charles Schweigel of River Falls, Wis., Gertrude Merches of St. Paul, Phillip Schweigel of Phoenix, Ariz., Catherine Schweigel of Tacoma, Wash., Regina C. Sjoquist of Plymouth, Minn., and John Schweigel of Las Vegas, Nev.

Margie is survived by her husband, her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins and many friends who will remember her intelligence, compassion, wisdom and wit. Her grandchildren include Ryan and Nicholas McGregor, the sons of her daughter Mary and husband James R. McGregor of Lakeville, Minn.; Laura, Jennifer (Eduardo Rego), Holly and Brianne, daughters of Patrick and Suzanne LaBoone of Wrenshall, Minn., and Donald Allan and Eileen Marie LaBoone, children of Ken and Kay LaBoone, also of Lakeville.

Gifts of Remembrance may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. 501 St. Jude Place. Memphis, TN 38105.

A Committal Service will be help at 1:15 pm Friday, April 22, 2011 at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery. Assembly Area #4. Minneapolis, MN

A Memorial Service will be held at St. Lawrence Catholic Church, in Duluth, later this summer.

To leave a memory of Margie or words of support for the family please visit www.BellBrothersFuneralHome.com

Arrangements by Bell Brothers Funeral Home. Duluth, MN 1-800-770-5745.