Marjorie Gladys Savala

Marjorie Gladys (Aslett) Savala LOVED adventure and travel. She was bold and brave as she hitch-hiked ½ way across the USA in her teens (kids, don’t try this now), drove a steam roller for her dad’s construction business, rode horses that tried to buck her off, rafted the Arkansas multiple times, went for a hot air balloon ride, white-washed coke oven kilns in the Bitterroot Mountains, and went zip-lining.

She traveled the world with her family -- camping in Switzerland, walking the roads Jesus traveled with a trip to the Holy Land, going with the military to Germany, visiting Harold and Enid Fowler (missionaries in Italy) and Scott and Annelle Price (missionaries in Africa), and working for Western Pacific Airlines and taking over 80 free trips with them. She passed that love of adventure and travel onto her children.

Though she loved sports -- bowling, softball, and volleyball, and though she loved adventure, travel, and being with family, perhaps her most treasured pastime was studying the Bible, praying, and looking for ways she could love God and His people with a servant’s heart.

Marjorie loved her husband of 58 -- almost 59 years before Tino passed on March 12, 2020 -- she loved her daughters, her grandchildren, and her God. She was a prayer warrior and over time grew to have a prayer list that was so long, it would take almost a week to get everyone and everything that was on it prayed for. She spent at least an hour almost every day praying for her family, her church, her nation, and the world -- she knew the leaders of most of the countries and prayed for them by name. She also loved her many friends, and she always said Wayne Hinkle was the best coach and Sunday school teacher she knew!

Marjorie met Tino when they were both in the Air Force at Offutt AFB, Nebraska in 1958 on a blind date. She decided she would give him a thrill and kiss him on the first date! Shocking! But, it turns out, she would say, that SHE got the thrill and decided to go out with him again. On April 1, 1961 Tino and Marjorie married at Offutt – not even realizing that it was April Fool’s Day.

Nana had a sign on her fridge that said, “There is no greater joy than knowing her children walk with the Lord.” And that is true. She loved watching her grandkids compete in sports and Bible Bowl and took great joy in reading to them, playing with them, and watching them grow up. Each grandchild had a sign that she gave them as children and wanted them all to feel that they were each one dear to her and unique. Their achievements were celebrated as if they had been her own and their sorrows were felt as keenly as any hurt she herself had faced.

These last few months the girls would pray that God would not take their mom until they had learned all the lessons from her that they needed to learn. When the hospice pastor came to pray with her once, before he could pray, Marjorie asked the pastor how SHE could be praying for HIM. Even though her body was riddled with cancer and her life was growing short, still she was thinking more of others than of herself and knew the God of the universe was always listening to her prayers.

Marjorie passed away on March 3, 2021 almost 1 year after her husband Tino and leaves behind her daughters -- Tina (her husband, Russ Spicer), DeeDee (her husband, Chris Emmer), and Judi (& her husband, Byrne Wright), her grandchildren Cody, Jared (& Michelle), & Christiana Spicer, Maggie (& Jake Allen), Teller (& Shelby), & Joseph Emmer, and Jesse, Isaac, and Sam Wright. She also leaves two great-grandchildren, Jonah and Eliza Allen.

She leaves behind a legacy of living a fearless life that was dedicated to God from the time in elementary school when she was given a Gideon Bible and knew, she KNEW, that the words in that Bible were true.

May her faith impact not only her family, but also everyone who hears of her. May the ripples of her faithful life spread outward through her friends and family without end.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

--Romans 10:9

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. --Isaiah 40:31