Marjorie Watson

Marjorie Jean Suttcliffe Treu Watson passed away peacefully on Jan. 12, 2015, at home surrounded by family.

A celebration of Marge’s life will be held on Oct. 2, at 1 p.m. at the Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, 101 N. 4th Street, Clear Lake.  She will be laid to rest next to her parents, sisters, and her beloved, Gaylord.

Margie was born in Clear Lake on May 5, 1929, to Harold and Letty Sutcliffe. She was the youngest of four sisters.  She grew up during the height of the great depression and often related stories of hardship and hunger from her early childhood.  When in high school she met the love of her life, Gaylord Beryl Treu.

Margie and Gay were married Sept. 7, 1952 and Margie worked several jobs to help her husband through college.  Gay was called into the United States Air Force through the ROTC program while working on his masters degree and became a fighter pilot. As a young couple they lived in many places across the United States. On March 4, 1957 she was blessed with her first son, Denny. Margie proudly lived the life of an Air Force fighter pilot’s wife until Gay was killed in a mid-air collision flying a cold war mission on Dec. 17, 1959.

After Gay’s death, Marge took her little boy and moved out west to Ogden, Utah to be near her sister and begin a new life.  There, she met Robert Gayle Watson whom she later married on July 16, 1961. The family moved to Idaho Falls in 1965. To this union was born her second son, Scott. That marriage ended in divorce.

Marge sold her Idaho Falls home in 1990 and moved to Colorado to be near her sons and grandchildren. She loved living in her “little cabin in the woods” as she called it.  When her sons left Colorado she stayed in that cabin until health and age forced her to move back to Idaho Falls to be near family once again.

Marge was an accomplished professional artist. She worked mainly in oil and pencil creating landscapes, wildlife, and portraits. The body of work she left behind is outstanding.

She established an Idaho Chapter of Gold Star Wives to help widows who had lost their husbands in the military. She performed volunteer work for Meals on Wheels, the Good Samaritan nursing home, and the VA hospital in Boise. She spent untold hours making lap robes, Christmas stockings and countless other handmade crafts for charitable organizations to use as gifts for those less fortunate. She was a member of the Lions Club in Colorado and in Idaho. Hers was a life spent helping others.

When Marge became “Grammy” it was her greatest joy. She loved playing with and teaching her grandchildren, Maddi, Mike, Melissa, Hanna, Cody, and Isaac. She was a second mother to them.

She is survived by her two sons, Denny (Kathleen) Treu, and Scott (Beth) Watson; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.