Marjorie Milleron Danenberg

Marjorie Milleron Danenberg

November 17, 1923-January 3, 2023

(Most information and memories provided by Marjorie's husband, Zvi Danenberg)

Our beloved Marjorie (also known as Marge) of Larkspur, CA died peacefully in her sleep on January 3, 2023. She was born in 1923 in New York City to Horace Bowen Milleron and Louise Hearn Milleron. The family moved to Los Angeles when she was 6 months old. During the "Great Depression," the family lived in San Fernando Valley in a house that had a dirt floor. When she was 13 or 14, she helped her father dig and install a sewer line.

After World War II started in 1941, she became part of the "Greatest Generation" and made several important contributions to the war effort. In 1942 she was painting F-38 fighter planes at Lockheed in Burbank, CA. In 1943 she was a weather observer in the High Sierras and ran the Mono Inn at Lake Mono while the men went to war, and she learned how to fly in Minden, Nevada. In 1944 she worked in the Sausalito shipyards helping to build "Liberty" ships. Marge was not a Rosie the Rivetter but "Rosie the Welder," and constantly sang the popular song of those days, "Stormy Weather" while "welding away" in the innards of the ship, "rat proofing" it and preparing it for war.

Marge joined the Women's Air Corps (WACs) in the Army Air Corps with the intention of ferrying cargo planes from the U.S. to Britain thus freeing male pilots for the air war over occupied Europe and Germany, but alas, by the time she finished her Army basic training they did away with women ferrying planes across the Atlantic because flight schools in the U.S. were graduating thousands of male pilots to send to Europe. So Marjorie joined a new Army Air Corps unit, "Shot From The Sky," where enemy planes shot from the sky (the German Messerschmidt 109 fighter plane, the Herinkel 88 bomber, and the prize of the exhibit-a Japanese Zero fighter plane) were exhibited throughout the U.S. to raise money for the war effort. The Zero wreaked havoc with our planes because it was small and very maneuverable. The one in this exhibit was shot down in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, and this Zero was Marjorie's "baby." She ran its engine and gave talks about it-she knew its parts in-and-out! The Salt Lake Tribune described Marge in an October 13,1944 article while she was serving in the Army Air Corp's Shot from the Sky unit as follows: "auburn hair and wide-set blue eyes distinguish this 20 years old typical American 'gal' who joined the service to learn something and help win the war." Marjorie ended up with the rank of sergeant and she was asked to stay in the regular army, but she declined. She had her heart set on attending UC-Berkeley, so she was honorably discharged in 1945.

Marjorie's experiences with public speaking in the Shot from the Sky unit inspired her to major in "speech "in college. In 1946 she enrolled in UC-Berkeley on the G.I. Bill of Rights. In 1949, she was part of the largest graduating class in UC-Berkeley history with a major in Speech and a minor in Russian! Shortly after graduating, she met her loving and adoring future husband, Zvi, and after two and a half years of courtship that included recitations of Shakespeare and Robinson Jeffers, they married in 1953.

Marjorie and Zvi were married for 70 years. They have three lovely and bright daughters-Anne, Eve, and Lynn. Tragically, a fourth daughter Gail died early in childhood. Marjorie stoically shouldered her grief and focused on her remaining family-as a stay-at-home mother and wife. She entertained her children with many animated stories of her own childhood and loved reading aloud to them, including Dr. Suess, Hans Christian Andersen and Grimm's fairytales, and even the Chinese legend The Monkey King. But she also challenged gender stereotypes and became a trailblazer and a role model for what a woman could do in so-called men's jobs. After many do-it-yourself projects in the family home, she became a "home repair person" for hire as a plumber, an electrician, and a carpenter. She fondly referred to herself as a "house doctor," and one of her nephews said, "she sure knows where it's at." It sure was a joy and a pleasure to watch her in action and doing her work!!!

There are so many memories and stories of Marjorie's remarkable life that it's difficult to select the ones to share. Her husband Zvi shared several examples from their life together that will tell how talented and what a marvel she was as a person, a mother, a teacher, a volunteer, and a house doctor:

1) She installed over 300 low water-consuming toilets in Marin County during her long career.

2) In 1962 we had an old house in Mill Valley (vintage 1905). One day Marge went into the attic and came back saying, "Some of the wiring is bare. This is a fire hazard, and we have to rewire the building." We got a building permit to rewire the house and Marjorie got a Sears "do it yourself" wiring manual and did most of the wiring herself with Zvi assisting. When the inspector saw the quality of her work he exclaimed, "your husband knows what he is doing." Marjorie never let on that she did 95% of the work. The early 1960s were different times. Men looked on women who had home repair skills as something freakish.

3) In 1964 when we moved to our home in Larkspur, we built a large deck. Marjorie submitted detailed blueprints to the Larkspur building inspector. When the inspector saw the blueprints, he could not believe what he saw and said, "I have never seen such perfect blueprints for a deck. If you follow the blueprints, you won't have any problems with me." So off we went to put up the deck. It took Marjorie, I, and a friend of ours three days to frame up the deck, and Marjorie was sawing away happily-posts, studs, and joists with her power Skil saw! It took us months to lay the decking because Marjorie was a perfectionist, but that deck is still one of the joyful parts of our property and has hosted numerous family gatherings over the years.

4) In 1966 we installed a 50 ft sewer from the front of our house to the main clay sewer pipe in the street, and what a "ride" that one was! First we had to dig a deep trench in hard rock with jackhammers that weighed up to 45 pounds to break up and pulverize the hard rock, and Marjorie was right there shoveling and tossing the pulverized rock 5 feet up from the bottom of the trench!! What a trooper she was!!! The hard work made us hungry, and she would make us huge hamburgers for lunch! Sewer pipe in those days was heavy cast iron rather than plastic as it is now, and Marjorie became an expert in melting the lead in a special crucible and pouring it into the hub to seal the section seams. She went above and beyond common practice of the day and taught herself to use a special masonry drill to drill a perfect circle to fit the sewer line into the city's sewer main. The inspector's comment was, "I have never seen anything like this. This is incredible!" There were no cracks or holes in the clay sewer main, because doing a perfect job was second nature to Marjorie!!!

5) In the late 1960s Marjorie returned to school and did post-graduate work to earn her teaching credential to teach grades K-8 in California. After earning her credential she was a substitute teacher, and during the 1970s she worked at Hall Primary School in Larkspur as a teacher assistant. She built a shed and made it into a woodshop for the students. She built low tables and provided them with small hammers and small saws and small vises and there she conducted woodshop classes for the 1st-6th graders, and they loved it and their time with Mrs. Danenberg. Years later some of those former students would tell her how much they loved her woodshop class and how much they learned from it.

6) In the 1970s we connected our water main to the water meter. A municipal water district supervisor came over to inspect the work. When the inspector saw the workmanship of the hook-up at the meter he asked a male crew member, "who did the work?" When he heard it was a woman, he just would not believe it.

7) In 1984 torrential rains flooded our basement music room and a rug was damaged. The insurance company would cover the loss, but said it might be as long as a month for a contractor to come out and take care of it. Ever-ingenious Marjorie had another idea. "We'll haul the rug up to our attic to dry." ...and that's what we did! The insurance company sent a small check to compensate us for our inconvenience, but it was Marge who solved the problem.

8) For years Marjorie taught a "Basic Home Repair" class in College of Marin's continuing education program. The students were mostly women and a few men. She arrived at class in her utility-shelled Toyota pickup truck with a toilet, a broken lamp. and even a kitchen sink for classroom demonstrations. Her adult students just loved to help carry her equipment into class!!!

9) During the 1980s Marge volunteered extensively for Habitat for Humanity and Marin Abused Women's Services in San Rafael-working long overnight shifts. During her volunteer time she would do a lot of maintenance, remodeling, and repair work. Her calm demeanor helped frightened and agitated women and children. She included some abused women as helpers so that they could make some "pocket money" and become more self-sufficient. In 1985 Marjorie was named "Marin Volunteer of the Year " for her work with Marin Abused Women's Services.

10) There was the famous freeze of Christmas Eve in 1990. The temperature in Marin dropped to the mid 20s, and pipes burst when the water in the pipes turned into ice. To prevent this, plumbers would use blow torches to heat up the frozen pipes. They were known as the "blow torch brigade." Marjorie became an honorary member of that brigade when she responded to over 30 calls that day. She did not get home until 10p.m.-just in time to prepare the turkey and stuffing for the family! Of course, being Marjorie, she did not charge overtime.

11) One day she came home beaming, "I had a good day. I worked 8 hours and made $100." I responded, "Marge, the math does not add up. You charge $20 an hour. You should have made $160 rather than $100." She responded, "Yes I worked 8 hours, but it took me 3 hours to figure out the problem-and most importantly, I learned something from it. I am not going to charge somebody for that." Marjorie was so honest!!!

12) One day I got a demanding phone call "Are you the plumber?" I answered, "No, it's my wife." The male caller answered, "I didn't realize the plumber is a woman..." I knew where he was coming from and I could visualize him weighing the question, "Shall I employ her or not?" Then he said an awful thing, "I'll take a chance on her." I didn't argue with him but told him calmly, "Give me your phone number and she'll get in touch with you." A few weeks later that same man called and asked, "Why didn't you tell me she is that good?" I didn't respond, but thought to myself, "You didn't ask me how good she is!"

13) In 1993 Marjorie drove to New Jersey, rented a room near her daughter Lynn's home, and stayed in the area for more than six months to help the new parents after the birth of her first grandchild. When Lynn and her family returned to California in 1996, Marjorie regularly cared for her grandchildren while Lynn worked.

As she aged, Marjorie cut back on physically demanding work, but she continued to work even into her early nineties. When she could no longer do the work herself, she instructed others through it, step-by-step, until the job was complete. After a broken hip in 2015, Marjorie developed dementia and spent her last years in assisted living-first at Nazareth House in Terra Linda, and then at Atria Tamalpais in Novato after Nazareth House closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Marjorie also loved animals and they loved her! Our daughter in Sacramento had four dogs, and whenever Marjorie went to Sacramento on "home repair missions," the dogs would make a "beeline" to her room to sleep with her. She even stayed in Sacramento for several months to care for the dogs while our daughter worked long hours. Down the street from where we live there was a huge, mean Rottweiler named "Duke." He was fenced in a yard, and whenever people went by the fence Duke would bark and roar-ready to tear people apart-but whenever Marjorie would come by and say gently, "Hi Duke," he would come docilly and lick her hand through the fence slats. It was an amazing sight!!!

She always thanked you whenever you did something for her. The staff at Atria Tamalpais Assisted Living loved her for that. When you called her or she called you on the phone she always gave you "phone-hug." She was a decent and beautiful human being-a real "Mench." Thanks to the staff at Atria Tamalpais for your loving care of Marjorie! Thanks to Marin Villages and Vivalon for arranging and providing transportation for Zvi's precious visits with Marjorie!

Marjorie was generous, kind, independent, self-sufficient, adventurous, and very practical, with a can-do attitude - and when a job had to be done, she did it without hassles. She taught her daughters independence and self-sufficiency, and was unique and before her time in so many ways. She truly had what's best in the American character - and to top it all, being helpful and contributing was what filled her.

She is survived by her husband Zvi, her sister Jean Brooks, daughters Anne, Eve, and Lynn and grandchildren AJ and Evy. Marjorie, if you are in heaven, you are probably fixing all the toilets there! Keep doing your thing dearest Marjorie. It was such a gift and a blessing to have known you and be with you for so long!!! We miss you so much!!! Much, much love dearest Marjorie!!!