Marny Jolliffe

1923 - 2020

MARNY JOLLIFFE On Monday, February 3, 2020 Marion Ware Jolliffe (Marny) passed away peacefully at her home in Chico, California. She was 96 years old. Marny was born on Feb. 19, 1923 in Jamaica Plain, MA, to Susan Lee Ware and Thornton Kirkland Ware of Fitchburg, MA. Ms. Jolliffe received her early education at the Winsor School in Boston and went on to study Child Development at the Ruggles St. School in Boston. Ms. Jolliffe traveled to California to take a job providing day care for Bay Area children whose fathers were fighting in WWII and whose mothers were working in the factories. In 1949 she enrolled in the University of California at Berkeley studying art history. There Ms. Jolliffe met and in 1951 married Virgil Jolliffe. They moved south, settling in Riverside where she would live for the next 50 years. In 2010 Ms. Jolliffe moved to Chico for a final chapter in her life. One of Marny's greatest joys was music. From childhood days playing piano for her brothers to calm their fears during a hurricane, to years of leading children at the Temple Beth El Nursery School in song and dance, to hours spent singing along to the songs of her sons, she embodied music. She sang alto in the First Congregational Church choir in Riverside and had a passion for choral music. Both sons have indelible childhood memories of the operas of Puccini and Verdi or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the record player, played at ear splitting volume with Marny singing along, enraptured with their power and beauty. In those moments even lovers of Hendrix and The Beatles had to acknowledge common ground. Another of Ms. Jolliffe's loves was for the beauty of wilderness. She loved the Sierras, backpacking there as a young woman and bringing her family to camp in later years. She also loved the woods and waters of Lake Champlain, spending childhood summers and, even after moving west, steadfastly returning to stay in the cabin built by her mother in a pine grove overlooking the Lake. She is survived by her sons and their wives, Christopher Jolliffe and Sharon Greenfield of Concord MA and Bradford Jolliffe and Julie Quarterman of Chico, CA as well as grandchildren, Anna, Nicole, Ryland, Zoe and Natascha. She leaves her brother Dave of Key Colony Beach, FL and 9 nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by brothers Tony and Bob. Please make gifts in her memory to The Aldo Leopold Foundation: E13701 Levee Rd, Baraboo, WI 53913-9727 https://www.aldoleopold.org/donate/