Marjorie Rose Meyer LaRocca

Marjorie Rose Meyer LaRocca, 86, died on May 12 in San Antonio, Texas. She was a long time resident of Corpus Christi. She retired as Business Manager of the Del Mar College West Campus. She also served as executive secretary to Captain Herbert Weeks of the Texas Rangers. Prior to that she was a pastor's wife at Lindale Baptist Church and a beloved Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Corpus Christi. She was a founding board member of Master Planning, Inc., which has served several thousand elderly widows and poor children in the inner city in Dallas and Waxahachie, TX.

After retirement and the death of her first husband, she met and married Salvatore LaRocca, while they were both volunteering at a Youth With a Mission base in Kona, Hawaii. She helped manage the communications office for YWAM in Kona. Her poems were published in their publications. The couple were married in Hawaii. They built a new home and life together in San Antonio.

She brightened the lives of every person she encountered with her smiles, poetry and bright colored crocheted dishrags she constantly made and gave away to strangers, who immediately became friends. Every doctor's office waiting room she visited changed when she arrived and got folks started talking. One or more would be given one of her beautiful dishrags, complete with one of her poems and an invitation to listen to her favorite Christian radio station, BBN 90.9 FM. Her poems were published and sent by letter and email to countless people whom she felt needed the uplift of a poem or a prayer.

She was born on April 16, 1922 in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota to Wilber F. and Mary Vanderwall. She was preceded in death by her parents, her first husband, Gerhart Meyer; her brothers, Bob and Tom Vanderwall and her sister, Jean Nelson.

She is survived by husband, Salvatore LaRocca; sister, Doris Crow; daughters Marion Pattillo and Jean Souza and son Gary Meyer. She is also survived by eleven grandchildren and seven great grandchildren and six nieces and nephews. She has made a special place in the hearts of numerous children in her neighborhood who called her Grandma, brought her surprises and delighted in having her watch them shoot baskets.

Flowers or in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Community Bible Church for Chiapas Backpack Project, 2477 N. Loop 1604 E, San Antonio, TX. 78232