Marjorie Margie Ann Phelps Benson

Marjorie Ann “Margie” Phelps Benson, our daily pleasure and most beloved mother, grandmother, and friend, died Saturday, September 11, 2010 just a few days after her 87th birthday. Margie was a Hyde Park girl who spent a happy childhood rolling in the sawdust of her Dad’s lumber mill until his untimely death from the stress of trying to keep a business going during the Great Depression. After that, like so many, she had to grow up fast as she and her increasingly ill Mom tried to get by. Her stories of those years have left us with a deep and lasting sense of the overwhelming beauty and humility of this life. In 1942, just before he enlisted, a neighborhood sweetheart and infamous local, Rowdy Buddy Benson, offered her a ring or a record player. She had done without so much she decided she would enjoy the music while she waited for the wedding. Three years later, just after her Mom died, the hard times ended when that same lean, mean, sun-baked marine finally got off those deadly islands in the South Pacific. First in San Diego, then later in Houston, their life together became and remained truly “some enchanted evening” for 44 years. Gone before her are so many worthwhile people; her parents, Hugh and Lola; in-laws, Kate, Pete, Margaret, and Catherine; old friends and neighbors; and her “Buddy.” Surviving her are her son, Farrell, and the late loves and lights of her life, her grandsons, The “G” boys, Thomas, Patrick, and Connor, better known to her as Toods, Paddy Wig and the Square Bear; and those exquisite friends, Brenda “Belle”, Rob, Sonny, Betty “T”, and Jo. In lieu of costly remembrances, Margie asks that you just spend it on your grandkids. They will be worth it and she will “see ya” again. A private family service will be held at a later date.