Marjorie Powell

Marjorie Powell, 94, Dickinson, died Friday, November 12, 2004, at St. Luke?s Home, Dickinson. Memorial services are 12 noon, Tuesday, November 23, 2004 at First Congregational United Church of Christ, Dickinson, with Rev. Ilo Madden, officiating. Inurnment will be in the Wataga Cemetery, Wataga, Ill. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church. Marjorie Nelson was born on March 12, 1910, in Galesburg, Ill. , to Frank and Alice (Sollars) Nelson. She attended Lombard College in Galesburg, Ill and Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind. and studied history. Marjorie was also active in intramural sports and refereed women?s basketball. In her youth she studied violin at Beecher Chapel in Galesburg and played second violin in the Galesburg Orchestra. Marjorie also created art in various media and exhibited in the Stark County Illinois art Shows in the 1960?s and 1970?s. Marjorie Nelson and Cecil Powell were married on December 12, 1938 and made their home in Wataga, Ill. until August 3, 1960. While living in Wataga, Marjorie was a member of the Wataga Congregational Church and a founding member of the Wataga American Legion Auxillary Post. Cecil and Marjorie moved to Wyoming, Ill. in 1960, and Marjorie was active in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, serving as President of their Women?s Guild, as a Circle Leader and Bible School Teacher. She was also a member of the Girl Scouts of America, serving as Scout Leader and Day Camp business manager and craft person. Cecil and Marjorie moved to Dickinson, North Dakota in the summer of 1974, when Cecil took a job as landman with El Paso Natural Gas Company. Marjorie believed in the goodness of the human spirit; her charitable acts were often one-on-one, face-to-face acts of kindness and generosity. She worked varied jobs in her lifetime, in addition to being a stay-at-home mom. During the Great Depression she worked at the Nelson Family?s open-air root beer stand, and she assumed Cecil?s job with the Sherwood-Templeton Coal Company while he served in the U. S. Navy during WWII. Marjorie also spent a summer working the Princeville, Ill. Canning Company in order to meet and work with Hispanic migrant workers. Marjorie Powell is survived by: one daughter and son-in-law, Jackie and Jim Hope, Dickinson and one grandson, Patrick, Dickinson; one sister, June Hartley, Galesburg, Ill. She was preceded in death by: her parents, husband, Cecil and brothers, Leonard and Eugene Nelson. In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to: First Congregational United Church of Christ, 102 West 4th Street, Dickinson, ND 58601.


Burial Date: November 23, 2004
Funeral Home Dickinson, ND

Memorial Service: First Congregational United Church of Christ