Marjorie Opal McCorkle Stotts

From her World War II girlhood, living on an isolated farm in Kansas, to her newlywed years posted with her Air Force officer husband in post-War Japan, Marjorie Stotts always was good natured, easy going, adventurous and enjoyed traveling.

Blessed with a sharp mind and an engaging personality, she shone in school—winning admiring comments from teachers and later employers for her good work.

Then, in an era, where international travel wasn’t easy or common, Marjorie ticked off an enviable bucket list, including Thailand, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany.

Even formidable challenges didn’t dissuade Marjorie; when she and her husband first learned to ski, while living in Japan, the ski resorts were primitive, lacking ski lifts. Marjorie didn’t hesitate to climb up the mountain, ski down, and then climb up again. She later used the same tenacity to find the right educational opportunities for her daughter, who was born deaf.

Mrs. Stotts died April 11, 2022 at her home in San Jose. She was 84.

Marjorie Opal McCorkle was born on June 13, 1937 in Safford, AZ, the daughter of Mr. Jack Steward McCorkle and Mrs. Winnie Powell McCorkle. Her parents, who met while teaching in Nebraska, lived in Arizona while her father was assigned with the Soil Conservation Service. During Marjorie’s childhood her family hopscotched around, mostly in the West, living in Santa Paula, CA, Amarillo, TX, on a family farm in Kansas, in Albuquerque, NM, Hardy, NE, and Stillwater, OK. While in Kansas, during the war years, Marjorie attended a one-room schoolhouse as a first grader bookended by three kindergarteners and three second graders. The teacher realized how capable she was and skipped her ahead to join the second grade. The family finally moved back to Albuquerque, NM, where she graduated in 1954 from Highland High School. Her counselor wrote that Marjorie was "One of our very best students.”

On June 1, 1957, she graduated from New Mexico A&M College in just three years with a bachelor of science degree in business administration. She pushed ahead faster because it was important to her family that she graduated before she got married. She also received a secretarial certificate. She was an active student leader, serving as president of Mu Beta, an honorary women's sorority; treasurer of Gamma Delta and secretary-treasurer of Alpha Psi Omega. She was a member of numerous organizations including the social sorority Chi Omega, the national honorary fraternity for arts and science majors, Phi Mu Tau, the professional organization Pi Gamma Mu, and the college band. She acted in Coronado playmaker productions and was on the staff of the college yearbook. She was listed in "Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities." During college Marjorie worked part-time in the college’s publicity department.

A week after her college graduation, on June 8, 1957, Marjorie married Lt. Franklin Dee Stotts. Following a brief wedding trip the couple moved to Big Springs, Texas, the bridegroom's Air Force station. During his military career, Marjorie and her family lived in many places including Tucson, Japan, Palo Alto, CA, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, Massachusetts, and Maryland.

Marjorie was a dedicated mother—and later grandmother. Her first daughter, Cindy, was born in March 1964. Marjorie enrolled Cindy in an early reading program at 4 and by second grade, she was reading at a 12th grade level. Marjorie went to the principal to ask what could be done to keep her challenged and was initially turned away. She then took advantage of an opening and got the ear of the superintendent and won a concession. Cindy was able to skip third grade.

Marjorie’s second daughter, Cathy, was born in August 1966. Marjorie knew early on that something was different in Cathy’s development, but doctors didn’t believe her when she said her daughter was deaf. Then, once Marjorie insisted on a hearing test when Cathy was two, they confirmed the hearing loss but then said there was no reason to get hearing aids. Marjorie and Frank rebuffed some family pressure to put Cathy in an institution and instead worked tirelessly to make the very best decisions they could, given the information they had. Marjorie researched programs and found the Tracy Clinic which offered a correspondence course for families. She spent hours each day doing the lessons with Cathy and with each move worked to find new resources and schools for her. In Utah, for example, Marjorie and Frank were very involved with the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, organizing two retreats in Utah for oral deaf children and their families.

Her advocacy for the women around her did not end with her daughters. During Cindy’s fourth grade year, her married teacher became pregnant. The principal’s requirement at that time was that all pregnant teachers must go on leave before they started to show, feeling it was unseemly. This meant Cindy’s teacher would have to go on leave in April and the class would have a long-term substitute for the rest of the year. Marjorie organized a petition drive and took a complaint to the superintendent of schools (who she had met while serving on a task force regarding education for deaf children) who acknowledged that was not a district-wide policy and Cindy’s teacher was able to continue teaching and the entire policy was scrapped. Her daughters and granddaughters have continued this fine tradition of advocacy in their own lives, organizing for increased disability services at their college and improved access and support for education at all levels for under-represented groups.

After Frank retired from the Air Force in 1978, the family moved to Las Vegas, where Marjorie worked for insurance agents as secretary and office manager until 1988. When Frank retired in 1993, the couple spent several years traveling in a motorhome and then bought a house in San Jose, but continued to travel for several months a year.

In addition to her husband of 64 years, Franklin Dee, Marjorie is survived by her daughters Cindy Howard (John) and Cathy Stotts, who served as a dedicated caregiver for Marjorie in recent years; three granddaughters, Amanda (Antoine), Laurel, and Gwen; and a great-granddaughter Charlotte.