Jean Marks

Jean Clark Marks "Taddy" or "JC" Marks passed on peacefully surrounded by her family on February 15th at her home in The Heritage in San Francisco. She was born in 1926 and raised in McPhearson, Kansas, then moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she attended Central High and University of Arizona as a Pi Phi. In 1946 she married Charles Feltman and moved to Los Angeles (Playa del Rey), where she devoted herself with joy to nurturing her two children's budding artistic talents, and taking them sailing on weekends. In 1969 she married her second husband, Roy Marks; they moved together to San Francisco (Russian Hill) in 1973. A graceful athlete with a will of iron and a permanent glint of laughter in her eyes, she played a spirited game of tennis and a passable game of golf at her beloved Olympic Club. She loved music and movies and singing in the Calvary Presbyterian Choir. Her enthusiasm for San Francisco, cable cars, whales, and even fog was positively infectious, but she found something to speak of in glowing superlatives just about anywhere she went. A widow after 1979, she was a docent at the de Young museum, she volunteered at local hospitals, and she even once played a supernumerary in Faust. She studied Italian while her daughter lived in Italy, and frequently traveled to LA, Washington and Paris to visit her grandchildren. She loved zoos, especially the elephants, read nonfiction voraciously and long carried a card identifying herself as a "student of life". Her playfully glamorous fashion sense has no doubt lit up the foggy days of thousands of San Franciscans over the years. She is survived by her son, Tres Feltman & his wife Debra of San Luis Obispo, and by her daughter, Wendy Garner & her husband William of Washington DC, as well as by her four grandchildren, Skylar & Jessica, and Elizabeth & Hannah, and two step-grandchildren, Derrek & Christopher. She was predeceased by her husband, Roy Marks, in 1979, and by her beloved younger brother, Richard Clark, in 2000. A memorial will be held on April 9th at The Heritage, 3400 Laguna St, San Francisco, CA 94123. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Ladies Relief and Protection Society (The Heritage).