Marjorie Leone Cook Kjellin

November 26, 1929 - January 29, 2024

Marge, our dear mother, slipped away gently like a Monarch butterfly drifting into the sunset, in her room, at my sister Elizabeth’s home in Comstock Park Michigan with family, Tom her son, Sara her granddaughter, along with her son in law Gary, Monday January 29, 2024 at 6:30 a.m.. Marge was surrounded by some of her treasured mementos from her home in Tustin California that she loved. Her room really looked like part of her home with things she admired up on her wall. Her granddaughter Sara, with her artistic flair, decorated it just like she had on her walls in her home. She called it her little assisted living room. She moved from California in June of 2021.

Marge was born on November 26, 1929 and raised in Flint Michigan. After college she married our father John Kjellin and had 4 children. They moved to California in 1959. She loved living in Southern California her last 65 years. Marge grew up as a child and young woman in Flint Michigan, with summers spent at the family cottage at Sage Lake Michigan. She loved the family compound, with cousin’s aunts and uncles who had cottages next door. She went back every summer.

Marge loved to cook, entertain, play bridge, work in her garden, and go to Laguna Beach every year for the art show and Pageant of the Masters. She loved music, art, concerts, art festivals, plays, antiques and played piano. Mom also enjoyed watching the Olympics, figure skating was her favorite. The Anaheim Angeles baseball team here in Orange County California and Los Angeles Dodgers she rooted for. Every season Mom enjoyed taking her granddaughter Sara to plays and was very involved supporting her in her art, music, and hunting for antiques. She really enjoyed traveling with her cousin Sandra Freeman to Europe. They had so much fun and Sandy said it was her one and only travel partner she ever wanted. The two of them were always on the hunt for the next antique in USA or abroad. Two peas in a pod. Mom was a caring person, she would cook up a huge pot of soup and bread and we took it over to homeless in a park near her home every Friday night. She tutored children who lived in her Townhouse complex with their English and they really looked forward to it. She gave back to community where she could. She enjoyed hosting bridge parties and cooking for the event.

While living in Tustin she joined the Assistance league of Tustin after retirement. She was always volunteering at Tustin league thrift store. She liked working the thrift store and going through all the things people donated, really nice things. Mom loved antiques and she went to garage sales to find treasures to put in her antique booth in Orange California. It was quite successful. She had many beautiful things in her home.

Christmas was her very favorite holiday. Her trees, yes trees, with all her ornaments she collected over the years. They meant a lot to her; each had a story. We all have them now, so it’s nice every year when we get them out we think of her. We’re so glad she passed them down to us with notes in boxes as to the origin of where she bought them . She arranged ornaments on her trees until the day she started taking them down. Her Santa Clause tree was amazing.

Every year she would host Christmas open house for the neighbors, friends and family. Christmas music playing and lots of goodies and drinks. Her Christmas pecans were great.

Our Mother decorated for every holiday, in our home and in her office where she worked for years as office manager in a cancer clinic in Laguna Hills California. All the patients just loved her decorations and she said people are going through enough, I want it nice for them. Everything was so festive for every holiday and decorated just for “her” patience.

Margie had a kind soul, very caring. Her undying devotion she gave our brother Timothy until his death in 1985 of brain cancer is remarkable. So much sympathy and empathy for all she met. She loved Monarch butterflies and hummingbirds . Feeders were always full. She sees one or the other and she says, Grandma or Tim is visiting us, “just checking in she would say”. She was my best friend and confidant and only family here. WE were it. She was wonderful, loving, caring, classy, humble, and noble. A friend to many, a confidant to those who needed it.

Mom was the glue, and the rock of our family. Mom’s favorite saying when things seemed rough, “I’m a tough old bird”, and that she was. She never said an unkind word about anyone, even a politician. She had a really good heart. She loved all animals that our family had over the years. She saved all the Cards we ever gave her from every occasion.

Marge was laid to rest at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1221 Wass St in Tustin California in the Memorial Garden with her beloved son Timothy on March 5, 2024. It was 39 years to the day he passed away. Tim took a huge chunk of her heart that day, so we laid most of her to rest to be with him, overlooking the church with a special stained-glass window that was made and installed when our brother passed away from the donations made in his name to the church. She was very involved in the design. The “Boy with the loaves and fishes”, it’s just beautiful, his favorite bible story as he was a fisherman himself. All her children will be with her at some point in this garden as a family, our names next to hers and Tim’s on the wall over the water fountain. The remaining was laid in Sage Lake Michigan, overlooking her family cottage with her Mon, Dad and other family members. We love you and will miss you so much Mom.

We set up memorial fund for donations to the church in her name that go towards the upkeep and maintence of the Memorial Garden. Marge left behind

Thomas Kjellin (Jean)Carey Kjellin-Sumi (Randy)Elizabeth Kjellin Manley (Gary)Robert Cook (brother)4 grandchildren, 3 great grandchildren

Preceded in death byTimothy John Kjellin(son)George Cook (father)Grace Thomas Cook (mother)