Marie (closeup) JACKSON

1914-2017
“Century Club”

Photo, courtesy of Edith Guynes Stanley

*Obituary
Marie Niles Jackson
April 27, 1914 - July 30, 2017


Marie Niles Jackson, 103, died Sunday, July 30, 2017.

Funeral services will be held 10 am on Thursday, August 3, 2017 at First United Methodist Church in Borger with Pastor Pam Lehman officiating. Burial will follow in Westlawn Memorial Park in Borger. The family will receive friends from 6-8 pm on Wednesday, August 2, 2017 at the funeral home. Arrangements are by Minton Chatwell Funeral Directors of Borger.

Marie Niles Jackson was born April 27, 1914, to Harry Edwin Niles and Grace Ralphona Campbell Niles in Junction City, Kansas. When she was three years old she and her mother and her older sister joined her father to live in the new sod farmhouse he had built on their homestead in the Oklahoma Panhandle near Beaver City. The ''soddy'' was to be her home until her marriage to Harry Almun Jackson, son of another Beaver County pioneer family, on December 22, 1934.

Marie's older sister, Ralphona, preceded her in death at the age of 16 in 1926. Marie, a younger sister, and five younger brothers grew up together on the farm near Beaver. Despite the hardships of subsistence farming in the 1920s her memories are of a home filled with love, laughter, and lots of music. Both her parents were Salvation Army musicians when they met at a Salvation Army meeting in Kansas City.

The family farm survived the first years of the Great Depression, but the Dust Bowl killed their crops, their livestock, and finally the farm in the mid-1930s. The hardships of her formative years left Marie with a strong Can-Do, Make-Do ethic that never left her.

Harry and Marie moved with their young family to Borger, Texas, in 1942. She joined First Methodist Church in 1945 and remained a member until her death. She was active in the Women's Society of Christian Service (later United Methodist Women) and served that organization by holding every office. She taught Sunday School and had an active Sunday School class for the next 65-plus years.

Harry started a successful refrigeration business in the late 1940s. A few years later they established a paint and wallpaper business on Main Street in Borger. Marie studied at the Institute of Color and Design in Houston. She later added custom draperies to the product line. When Borger First Methodist Church began to plan and build a new sanctuary in 1953 Marie served on the building committee, and in that capacity her name was placed on the cornerstone of the new building.

In 1953 Marie became a charter member in founding a local club of Altrusa International, a service organization for business and professional women. She remained an active member until her death and served the organization in every office. She attended a number of state conventions and was a delegate in quadrennial international conventions in California, Kansas City, Boston and London.

Seeing a need for a child care facility in Borger to ensure children were well cared for when mothers had to work to support their families, Marie and other members of Altrusa founded Buttercup House to provide that vital service in Borger. Buttercup House was licensed in 1961 and today has 111 children enrolled at the original facility located in the Borger Housing Authority, and a separate Baby Center. Marie served as Chairman of the Board for 20 years and continued on the Board until her death. Buttercup remains the oldest continually operating project within Altrusa International.

Harry and Marie were world travelers, having visited Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, Spain and Morocco, Ireland, England, and Scotland, Canada, and China, as well as many trips to all parts of the United States.

Marie was honored as Citizen of the Year by the Borger Chamber of Commerce in 2003.

Marie was preceded in death by Harry, her husband of 68 years, in 2002. She was also preceded in death by her parents, her sisters, Ralphona and Naomi Niles, and four brothers, Karl and wife Ruby Niles, Kenneth and wife Betty Niles, Clifford and wife Fern Niles, and brother Earl Niles. She is survived by her three children, daughters Charlene Jackson Buckles of Borger and Bette Ruth Jackson Moscarello of Weatherford, Texas, and her son Gary Robert Jackson and wife Lynda of Amarillo, her brother Harold Dean Niles and wife Virginia of Edmond, Oklahoma, sister-in-law Zola Faye Niles of San Antonio, and nine grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, five great great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews and their descendants.

She will be remembered by the many roles she has played: friend, confidant, collaborator, teacher, role model, civic and church leader, daughter, big sister, Aunt Marie, Grandma, Sweetheart, and Mom.

The family requests that family and friends wishing to make a memorial contribution consider giving to Buttercup House, First United Methodist Church of Borger, or Borger United Methodist Women.

(Published by Minton/Chatwell Funeral Directors, Monday, July 31, 2017)

Contributed on 2/17/21 by neldapat
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Record #: 390108

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