Marion Louise Langley

On March 31, Marion Atkinson Langley woke up, washed her face, powdered her nose, cracked a joke to her wonderful caregiver and passed away. As she told us, “When it’s time to go, I’ll go…..I think I’m going up, but it probably would be more fun to go down”. After 105 years, it was time to go, and she joined her beloved parents, sisters and friends long since departed from earth.

Marion, a 5th generation resident of Santa Clara Valley, was born October 4, 1916, to William Leroy Atkinson and Charlotte Bray Atkinson. The family’s first home was on Hawthorne Way. Marion described waiting for the lamp lighter each night to help him light the streetlamps. After the family moved to the Alameda, she recounted the tragedy of her next door neighbor, Brooke Hart, son of Hart’s Department Store founder, who was kidnapped. This sad episode led to a vigilante lynching in San Jose. Because she was the youngest, her early years were special. While her sisters were off doing older-sister things, Marion played tennis with friends and enjoyed very special “low sneaks” with her father. He would whisk her off to get an ice cream cone at O’Brien’s Ice Cream Parlor, take her with him to Rotary Club Meetings, or he might take her on a drive to check out the orchards and ranches in the valley. Each spring, Marion would recall the wonder of Santa Clara Valley in full bloom.

She was enormously proud of her family. Father W. L., a realtor and orchardist, was very active in many aspects of Santa Clara county: From driving a ‘water wagon’ to dampen dusty dirt roads to becoming one of the first city council members of San Jose. He was on the County Water Board, and was a part of earmarking land for percolation ponds and reservoirs. A birder, he was published in the Cooper Ornithological Journal, and was a member of Rotary Club for decades. Marion and her father shared a love of music: Marion played the violin, and her father was the principle flutist in the San Jose Symphony Orchestra.

Marion’s mother, Charlotte Bray Atkinson, raised her four daughters to be inquisitive and independent. She was one of the first members of the To Kalon Club of San Jose, which brought cultural and intellectual speakers to women who otherwise were dependent on the newspapers and husbands for broadening their horizons. Her hobby was painting landscapes and birds, and she was published in volumes of The Birds of California (Dawson) as well as the Cooper Ornithological Journal.

Marion and her sister, Margery, spent scores of hours researching family genealogy. They discovered that their Bray ancestors were active in colonial Williamsburg in the 1600’s; they also found that other Brays were patriots in the Revolutionary War. Both Bray Avenue in Santa Clara, Kennedy Road in Los Gatos were named for her grandparents.

Marion attended Hester Grammar School, Roosevelt Junior High (where she met her future husband Arlington “Link” Langley), and San Jose High School. Upon graduation, she attended the University of California at Berkeley. In 1936 from the balcony of her sorority house in the Berkeley Hills, she watched the lights of the newly constructed Bay Bridge illuminated for the first time. This was the era of Big Band music, and Marion loved dancing and listening to Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and their cronies. WWII interrupted her education, and she married Link Langley before he deployed to the Pacific.

Daughter Arleen and Marion lived in Willow Glen, and welcomed baby Cindy when Link returned from the war. Marion was the consummate mother, becoming both Blue Bird and Brownie leader, driving the girls and friends to the movies, baking cookies for the classrooms and chaperoning any event that needed a chaperone.

Once her daughters were well on their way to adulthood, Marion resumed her college education and got here teaching credential from San Jose State University in 1966. She taught history, her passion, and English at Bret Hart Junior High School for 20 years. Students returned to visit her long after graduation, recalling such lessons as “We never played soccer in the Middle Ages. I’m not sure that we had invented a ball at that time. Who wants to check? And anyway, they should have named it soc-him”

Marion adored her grandsons and great granddaughters. She was an active participant in and fan of every game, graduation, garage sale, concert, story or photo in which they were a part.

Marion was very positive about life. Her personal philosophy was “Life is what You make it----you can be happy or sad, grateful or mad. Life happens and you just have to make adjustments. You can’t control life, but you can control your attitude”

She was also hilarious, delivering (with a twinkle in her eye) such zingers as:

*“Why are the doctors just practicing?”

*on March Madness: “I’m not a big fan of dribbling”

*When asked by a neurologist who was the president at the time, she said, “Well YOU went to Medical School and YOU don’t know?”

*on Birth Control: “They all need to take up a new hobby”

*”Presidents do a lot of good: If we didn’t have them, who would we blame?”

*” I have a new job: Pill container!”

*” While rolling down the hospital hallway for a Cat scan, she said to the 2 aides: “If I come back with a fur ball, I’ll hold you accountable”

She was a 20 year volunteer at History San Jose and over the years, Marion was a member of Alpha Omicron Pi, PEO, To Kalon, and the DAR. She subscribed to the Symphony, Opera San Jose, the Civic Light Opera, and Celebrity Forum. She always kept her bridge groups laughing even at 102 years old! (1 Club is bid. “Mom, she’s fishing.” Marion then says, “If that’s the case, I’ll bid one salmon”)

Marion leaves her beloved family members, daughters Arleen Langley Runels and Cindy Langley Andrews, son-in-law Stephen Andrews, grandsons Tim and his wife Avital, Joe and his wife Claire, and great granddaughters Hannah Eloise and Frances. The family wishes to extend their deep gratitude to Nohemi Guitierrez for her care and love, and to the staff at Campbell Village.

To acknowledge all the years of service Marion Langley gave to San Jose's history museum, memorial donations can be sent to History San Jose, 1650 Senter Road, San Jose, CA 95112.

A memorial Service will take place June 3, 1:30, in the Chapel of Roses at Oak Hill Funeral Home with refreshments following. Address: 300 Curtner Avenue, San Jose

BONUS!!

When the daughters figured out how to make a ‘note’ on their smart phones, they began to record things that Marion would say…..so here are a few more zingers, pearls, wit and wisdom of Marion Langley from the past few years:

When we hired ‘Dean Martin’ impersonator to come & sing to Mom at her 99th birthday, he said how marvelous she looked. She replied, “Well, Dean, you do too. I’d like the name of your mortician”

When asked by a neurologist who the president was, she said, “Well you’re the doctor and YOU don’t know?”

“I’d like to call Sears and order a new head; One with Air conditioning.”

“Who was I talking to?” Bert.

“Well what did we talk about?” I don’t know, I wasn’t there.

“Well apparently, I wasn’t either!”

Parked at Vasona Lake, “I wonder if those geese get out their fine china on Christmas Eve for their bugs.”

“Ouch, that was more pressure than I enjoy.”

“That’s OK, you’re just doing your hateful job.”

“I’m all right…..I’m just a mess, but I’m alright.”

“Bibs….you use them coming and going.”

“I can suffer in silence.”

“I’m just a pill.”

Getting a Cat scan, she says to the aides rolling her bed down the hallway: “If I come back with a fur ball, I’ll hold you accountable”

“I’m not sure why I need a nebulizer….I’m already full of hot air.”

Told to the Doctor: “Most of the things I started out with are still here.”

“I have a new job: Pill container!” 7/10/14

Mom, you can’t use the bathroom now….the bases are loaded. “So am I”

“I think I need shaking out….it’s been one of those meals.”

“As long as we can turn them around and make them Republicans, that will be fine.”

March Madness: “I’m not a big fan of dribbling.”

“I think I dropped the money down my front….it’ll take an excavator to find it.”

“The kids used to call me Muth (like Mother)….but we put it on the board and it looked too much like Moth.”

Class English assignment was to use “assail” in a sentence, so when she was 16 years old, she went into Lindsay’s Book Store downtown and asked Mr. Lindsay: “May I assail you for a job?”

“Presidents do a lot of good….if we didn’t have them, who would we blame?”

Soccer: “I don’t like this. It ought to be soc-him.”

Getting in to bed, “I’m going to practice my tennis tonight.”

“How did this one escape?”

“We never played soccer in the Middle Ages. I’m not sure that there was even a ball at that time.”

“We need lots of bald men….we need any old kind of men”

“I don’t know who let me out today.”

“Hot dog….need to bark and get a fan”

Driving through Der Weinerschnitzel, “We’re dining al fresca, fine cutlery and all.”

“Going away…going up, I hope, but down would be more fun!”

“I always meet everybody in the bathroom. It’s very informal and puts guests at ease.”

“Jelly Belly…I like the taste, but I don’t care for the name.” 2/16/2020

After pedicure: “I forgot to mention that I’ve added 4 more legs and feet. I’ll get them out for you to do too” 2/17/2020

I’m glad your eyes are working right now, Marion. “I’M GLAD THAT ANYTHING IS WORKING RIGHT NOW!”

What did we play before we played bridge? “We were playing around.”

Are you ready for an ice cream Sunday? “Oh, My Yesss…..even if it’s Saturday.”

After singing the Star Spangled Banner at the DAR luncheon meeting at the Rinconada in 2019, Mom announced loudly that “I was there for the bombs!”

Bridge:

1 Club is bid. “Mom, she’s fishing.” “If that’s the case, I’ll bid one salmon.”

Pass is the bid. Then Mom bids: “I’ve come alive!”

“I’ve been a dummy for years”

“They dress things up so much so you can’t really understand what the truth is.”

“We have these little Dif-U-culties now and then.”

Sharp objects: “This is us!”

There’s supposed to be a windstorm coming, Mom. “Too many people talking”

Mom, shall I turn off the heater? “Yes, I’m ONE HOT MAMA”

“ I have too many holes to fill up with various and sundry drops.”

“I guess I’d rather get a chest x-Ray than go to a cemetery.”

On Birth Control: “They all need to take up a new hobby.”

Why don’t you have a seat? “Why don’t I have a head?”

Wasn’t your party fun? “WELL, WHERE WAS I?”

How’s your cough? “Dainty”

To care giver: “You’d make a lousy husband”

“I’m one crummy babe”

“Standing pantless in the Macy’s cubicle with her daughter, thoughts of pleasant memories flooded her mind”

“Why are the doctors just practicing?”

“Well, how are YOUR stools?”

A caregiver wondered, so I asked, “When were you born, Mom?” “2001 and you can do the math.”

All I have to do is look in the mirror and I can find an Elephant seal too!

In the hospital: “How’s Andy?” He’s got a cough and ache……I think he has what you have. “Well, I told him when we were on our big date…..”

Recounting that I played a hand, Konne played a hand & Melanie played a hand, Mom says, “And I’m just playing around.”

“This lap robe is a perfect size for more mature people”

March Madness: “I’m not a big fan of dribbling”

“I don’t know who let me out today”

Feb 8, 2022 (Covid)

to ambulance driver: “I’m going dancing in the morning.”

Feb 11, 2022: “When it’s time to go, I’ll go.”