Marjorie Arlene Alexander

Marjorie Arlene Alexander, born February 13, 1923, on a farm near Rutland, Iowa to Orley and Hazel Alexander. She attended a one room, country school, from grades 1-8 and graduated from Rutland High School in 1940. She worked at Montgomery Ward and Nissan meat packing company until February of 1943. Marjorie joined the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve. She attended one of the first eight classes of boot camp for women Marines at Hunter College in New York. Her duty stations were Camp Lejeune, Cherry Point, North Carolina and Camp Miramar, California. Her MOS was a light truck driver.

She attended Iowa State Teacher's College in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She graduated in 1949 with a bachelor's degree. She taught junior and senior high school in Denton and Clinton, Iowa prior to moving to Denver in 1951. She taught for 32 years in several schools in southwest Denver including Kepner Junior High school and Kennedy High School.

Her next career was at JC Penny where she retired. After retiring, she took up painting and is a renowned American folk artist in the Marine Corps world. Her "Tun Tavern" painting hangs in the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Many Commandants, Generals, and Colonels have been given her paintings as well as other dignitaries including congressmen and other military leaders.

Her other interests through the years included traveling, line dancing (up until she was 93), raising horses, training dogs, guitar playing and composing, and loving on her animals.

Her favorite causes were education and Marines.

She will be missed by her niece, Karilyn Cupp in Iowa, and many many many friends that she has made along her great journey through life.

In lieu of flowers, tax deductible donations can be made to the Women Marines Association CO1, 3066 S. Granby St. Aurora, Co. 80014 or at www.WMACO1.org for scholarships and helping veterans.