Marcia Noble

Marcia Ellen Noble, 59, died suddenly in her home in NE Portland on September 6th 2012. She was a member of the Rose City community for more than 25 years. A memorial service to celebrate her life will be held on Friday the 14th of September at 1pm in the afternoon at Lincoln Memorial Park Funeral Home, 11801 SE Mt Scott Blvd, Portland, OR 97086. Reception to follow at Lincoln Memorial from 2-3pm.

Marcia Ellen Harris was born on June 27th, 1953 in Cleveland, Ohio's Cuyahoga county to Frederick Harris and Hester (Larson) Harris. In 1955, the Harris family moved to Kyoto Japan when Dr. Harris accepted a two-year Fulbright Scholarship to teach at Kyoto University. Not wanting to leave Japan after the two years, Frederick accepted the headmaster’s position at The American School in Japan (ASIJ) and the family moved to Meguro in 1957. The family spent 11 years in Japan before moving to Beaverton, OR in 1966. Marcia spent the summer of 1966 in Hawaii, and at Camp Miniwanca in Michigan, as well as Camp Merrowvista in New Hampshire.

On June 5th, 1971 she graduated from Beaverton High School and later that same month celebrated her 18th birthday. For the next three years, she lived in Beaverton and attended Portland Community College before applying to Oregon State University, where she matriculated in 1974. In 1975, Marcia fulfilled her dream of moving to Europe to study; she departed for Avignon, France in January of that year. After studying and traveling around the continent for 9 months, often with her sister, Becky – she decided to take a weekend trip to Germany to tour the Romance villages in September. While waiting to go up the Zugspitze mountain cable car, Marcia met a few GI's from the local Army base and decided to go up the mountain with them. She hit it off with one man in particular, Larry Dennis Noble, Jr. - her future husband. They spent the rest of the evening together and reluctantly parted after the weekend was over, promising to write and keep in touch. Her remaining time in Europe was spent in Greece and Norway. Back in the states at the end of 1976, she visited Dennis in Florida before moving to Chicago to stay with her Grandmother in hopes of becoming a flight attendant. This dream was not meant to be, however, and she moved back to Corvallis, OR in the spring of 1977 to complete some classes before graduating from OSU in June at the age of 24. On September 10th, after 2 years of long-distance romance, Dennis moved to Oregon to be closer to Marcia and they moved into their first apartment on Harrison Street on October 1st.

On January 14th, 1979 Dennis proposed and the couple picked out Marcia's engagement ring at Carl Greve on January 21st. Eight months later, on August 4th, the two married in a small ceremony in Oregon and then traveled to Trinidad, Tobago, and Barbados for their honeymoon. When they returned, they decided to move to Eugene so that Dennis could attend the University of Oregon. On April 19th, 1982 Marcia and Dennis were blessed with their first child, Kathryn Elizabeth Noble. The family moved to Florida to be closer to Dennis's parents in the Fall of 1983, and stayed for a year before moving to Japan in 1984 with Marcia's parents. There, Marcia taught English to Japanese students, a passion she would later pursue for many years. In 1985 the Noble's moved back to Oregon and bought their first home in NE Portland on 68th street the following year. On June 26th, 1987 their second daughter was born, Julia Christine Noble.

In 1989, Marcia started her own business called Oregon Homestays. She organized host families for Japanese students every summer and planned English lessons, day trips and events for the students and host families. She happily and successfully ran this business for 12 years. Sadly, during the tenure of her business, the Noble family suffered the loss of Dennis to cancer in 1994. Three years later, Marcia fulfilled a life-long goal of becoming a travel agent, and worked in travel, education and recruiting for the rest of her life.

Marcia was a truly special person with a gentle and caring spirit. She was overjoyed to become a first-time grandmother on June 4th 2012 when Katie gave birth to Zoey Isabella Noble-Perez. Marcia was passionate about helping others and volunteered with the Red Cross and Emanuel Children’s hospital. She loved Andrea Bocelli’s music, traveling the world, flowers and gardening, knitting, antiquing, and cross country skiing. She looked forward to bunko night with her girlfriends, was a phenomenal storyteller and could warm a room with her infectious laugh. There were no strangers in her life, only friends she hadn’t met yet. She will be missed by all who knew her.

She was proceeded by her loving husband Larry Dennis Noble, Jr. Her parents Frederick P. Harris and Hester A. Harris and her brother Freddy Harris. She is survived by her two daughters; Kathryn Elizabeth Noble, of Portland, Oregon and Julia Christine Noble of Beaverton, Oregon; her four sisters and their spouses, Judith and Ian Garbutt of Camas, Washington; Jacquelyn and Wade Bergeson of Gearhart, Oregon; Jennifer and Tomas Wahlberg of Corvallis, Oregon; Elizabeth (Becky) Bullis of Beaverton, Oregon; seven nieces and nephews and their families; and her grand-daughter Zoey Isabella Noble-Perez.