Theresa Helen Marko

Theresa Marko, known to all as Tess, was born on October 18, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois, to Jacob and Theresia Jerger. Tess was the second of seven children and a bit of a tomboy. Her older sister Marie often noted, she was always out playing stick ball in the street with the boys when there were chores to be done. Tess graduated from St. Michael’s Central High School in 1942. In 1945, she graduated from St. Charles Hospital School of Nursing in Aurora, Illinois. Following graduation, Tess and some of her friends from “nurses training” went on a grand trip to New York City, including a visit to the top of Rockefeller Center.

Tess began her career at Grant Hospital in Chicago, promoting to head nurse and assistant operating room supervisor. In 1950, she completed a course in operating room technique and management at the University of Chicago Clinics. From 1950 to 1963, Tess worked at Columbus and Cuneo Hospitals in Chicago as an operating room supervisor and clinical instructor. Her colleagues referred to her affectionately as the “German tank.”

In 1962, Tess married Gustav Marko, whom she met while helping her parents by working the counter in their Chicago delicatessen. In 1963, she took a brief break from her nursing career to raise her daughter, Rita. Her youngest sister Helene remarked that Rita was the love of Tess’s life.

Tess returned to work at Cuneo Hospital in 1974, where she was the emergency room supervisor and then nurse epidemiologist. She returned to college and completed her Bachelor of Science in 1977.

In 1983, Tess moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to be near her elderly father, Helene and Rita, then a student in Tucson. She retired from nursing and volunteered at St. Luke’s Hospital. Several years later, she followed Rita to Shelton, Washington, where she lived at the end of a road on a lake. Tess split wood for a wood-burning stove and waged a quiet battle against moles by chewing gum and spitting it into their holes (a more environmentally-friendly solution than poisoning the ground-dwelling vermin).

Tess returned to Phoenix in the mid-1990s, moving in with Helene who lived two streets over from Marie. Rita referred to the trio as “the three graces.” Tess cruised to Alaska and Hawaii, visited the Canyonlands and Las Vegas. She particularly enjoyed trips to San Diego to visit the zoo and wild animal park.

Despite a childhood tendency to faint at the sight of a dog, Tess came to love her sister’s canine companions. She was known to refer to her daughter’s dogs as her “grand-dogs.” Tess supported a number of causes in her later years, including a variety of animal rescue and children’s charities, and Catholic organizations. A member of Most Holy Trinity parish, Tess attended Mass in person or via television broadcast in her last few years.

Her last days were spent in comfort at Ryan House in Phoenix. She was surrounded by family and friends, including her nephew Keith Krueger, Toni Garvey, Shera Farnham and Doug DeMuth, Julaine Warner and Elizabeth Martin Parker.

Tess is survived by her daughter Rita Marko, her sister Helene Jerger, her brother John Jerger and his wife Liz, her sister-in-law Marilyn Jerger, myriad nieces and nephews, and friends who continue to adore her. In lieu of flowers, please donate to Hospice of the Valley.