Marles J. DeKeyser

She was born July 28, 1933 in Orland, CA to Samuel Jacob and Iva (Rexroad) Varner. She married Richard DeKeyser on July 4, 1953 in Sacramento, CA. He passed away Dec. 10, 2005 at their home in Edelstein. She was also preceded in death by her parents, three infant children named Matthew, Mark and Martin, one sister, Dorothy (Hiram) Stripe, one brother, James (Jennie) Varner, one grandson, Jared Prayne, and one great-granddaughter, Scarlet Jackson.

Survivors include five children: Karen DeKeyser of Peoria, Michael (Lori) DeKeyser of Oconomowoc, WI, David (Tim Williams) DeKeyser of Pekin, Angela (Tony) Prayne of Edelstein, Aimee (Bob) Hamilton of Jupiter, FL, 11 grandchildren: Joseph (Cara Zucklin) Corray, Jeanette Corray, Jesse (Danielle) Corray, Michael (Heidi) DeKeyser, Stephanie (Ben) Cape, Andrew (Jennifer) DeKeyser, Cailin (Eric) Jackson, Lauren Divet, Jacob Prayne, Jackson and Bennett Hamilton, 18 great-grandchildren, and two sisters, Ida (Ernie) Haldorson and Meta (Art) St. Louis.

Marles was a beautiful woman both inside and out. She was a fashionista who loved clothing and accessories, and was an accomplished seamstress who made many of her own and her children’s clothes. She had genuine, caring, and fun-loving friendships with Shirley Wilson, Sharon Morrissey and Wilma Nice. Together, with a few others, they formed a bowling team and bowled at Landmark Lanes for many years. The highlight of their year was to go away on a women’s weekend where they competed in bowling tournaments. While away, they would dress in their finest full-length gowns and enjoy a decadent meal together. They also enjoyed playing bridge with the Yinglings as married couples and would rotate the game to be hosted at each others’ homes each month. These friends later joined the Rags to Riches Investment Club together where mom served as Secretary, recording the meeting notes and reporting on the club’s finances. She was great with numbers. She worked at a bank in California when she first met dad at an Airforce ball. Later, and once she moved with dad to Illinois, she worked at Caterpillar as a secretary and handled all of their household finances. On family trips, she was the map-reading navigator.

She was always available to her children and oftentimes volunteered as a room mother in their classrooms and as a chaperone for their field trips. She believed that learning to play a musical instrument was important and encouraged her children to do things that she herself may not have had the opportunity to do. She attended all of her kids’ concerts, sporting events, and band competitions. We have many fond memories of attending Paint Nites with her as adults. If you said, “Mom, do you want to go…” her answer was almost always, “Yes! Where are we going next?” Her adventurous spirit took her to many European countries including Ireland, Greece and Italy to name a few, culminating in a much anticipated trip with her children to Paris in 2013. Oh, and she loved watching golfer, Tiger Woods, on TV! We think she actually expected to see him at his restaurant, The Woods Jupiter, when she visited it in Florida.

Mom and dad had a true love affair that spanned many decades. Each of their five children got to experience their parents just a bit differently depending on their birth order and the age of their parents at their births. For Karen and Mike, they were born in mom and dad’s twenties. For David and Angela, their thirties, and for Aimee, their early forties. Almost each of us got to experience being the baby, the middle child, and the oldest for a time, which mom said made us “well-rounded.”

As we look back at the wonderful wife, mother and grandmother that Marles was, there were many life lessons she imparted to each of us. To honor some of our best memories, we’d like to share them:

● If you have a baby every five years, you won’t have to go back to work when the preceding baby gets on the school bus to go to kindergarten.

● Be open-minded and non-judgemental.

● If we wanted something done, we could do it.

● If you don’t want your children to steal your diet Coke, put it in a coffee cup so they think you are drinking black coffee.

● Leaving chocolate covered peanuts in a hot car is OK... You can still eat them with a spoon.

● Leaving liver and onion leftovers from Lum’s in a hot car is not OK… It leaves a terrible, mysterious smell when forgotten under the seat of your car.

● When you eat all of the cool whip out of the container in the freezer, throw it out if you don’t want to get caught.

● Mom taught us how to love each other.

● Reading a book under the sheets with a flashlight until the wee hours of the morning is not a good thing when your father is a dairy farmer and expects you up at 4 AM to help with the cows (mom’s childhood).

● It’s best not to drive head first into a snowball that is bigger than your car (winter of ‘74/’75).

● When purchasing new items from TJMaxx, it’s best to bring them into the house when your husband is not looking.

● Fels Naptha bar soap is the best way to get poison ivy out of clothes.

● Homemade grape jelly from grapes in your own backyard is the absolute best (but a lot of work)!

● If you add an extra yolk to boxed cake mix it tastes better.

● “Set the table. Go pick a fruit and a vegetable from the canned goods under the counter. You need to eat a balanced meal with milk for dinner.”

● When one makes dinners every night for the family, and a special lunch after church on Sunday, it is OK to feed your family boxed cereal for dinner.

● Sugary cereal is a dessert, not a breakfast.

● When someone pays you a compliment, just say, “Thank you,” and don’t argue with them.

● If they say, “ … to you,” then you just say, “… back to them.” (She was a script writer and always wanted us to be prepared to know what to say!)

● Putt-putt propulsion may not help your backswing, but it gives the rest of the golfers a huge belly laugh and a fun story to tell for years.

● Always try to step into someone else’s shoes and imagine seeing it through their eyes.

● When looking back, only remember the good times and totally let go of the bad. Then all you will have had are only good times.

The family wishes to thank the staff at Proctor Place in Peoria for her care and their thoughtfulness during the past two years.

Visitation will be Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Davison-Fulton Woolsey-Wilton Funeral Home at the corner of Willow Knolls and Allen Rd. in Peoria. Funeral services will be Friday, Aug. 18, 2023 at 10 a.m. at the funeral home.

Burial will be in Resurrection Cemetery in Peoria.