Margery Henderson

Margery Mae (nee Gill) Henderson, 75, of Dallas, died peacefully at home on Aug. 2, 2016, two months after learning that she had advanced esophageal cancer.

A Memorial Service will be held at the Chapin United Methodist Church, Elsie, MI on Saturday, October 15, 2016 at 11:00 A.M., with Pastor Herb Wheelock officiating.  A graveside service will follow at Ford Cemetery, Gratiot County, MI.

Marge, a graduate of Central Michigan University and the University of North Texas, taught elementary school students for her entire career. She spent four decades in the Richardson Independent School District, chiefly at Merriman Park Elementary, where she was Teacher of the Year. She also helped develop and worked at the district's renowned Enterprise City program and supervised teacher certifications through local colleges. Marge loved to golf, read and play games, and she was a member of several local women's groups. She was also a top-notch cook, known for her lasagna, brisket, sheet cake, and pies.

Survivors include her husband of 52 years, Bradford William; their daughter Cherie Michelle (David Poppe) of New York and son Brent William (Sandra Gail Mistrot Henderson) of Plano; and grandchildren Douglas Henderson Poppe, Benjamin Grant Henderson and Sara Beth Henderson; along with her sister Margaret Ann Gill Green (Charles Velmar Green) of Elsie, Mich., niece Margery Hope (Wayne Webster, deceased, and Mark VanAtta) and nephews Craig Velmar (Darcy Jean Dorr Green) and John Ernest Henderson Jr. She is predeceased by her parents, Charles Sayre Gill and Freda Belle Bates Gill, and two infant siblings, Daniel Gill and Vanetta Gill, as well as brother-in-law John Ernest Henderson.

Marge was born May 3, 1941, in St. Johns, Mich., about 20 miles from her parents' small dairy farm in Chapin. Known as Margie in childhood, she grew up surrounded by her mother's relatives and a half day's drive from her father's kin, who farmed just west of Detroit. Money was scarce, and like many rural residents of that era, she and her sister sometimes wore dresses sewn by an aunt from the printed fabric of chicken-feed sacks. For entertainment, they played hearts and dominos for hours with their cousins. On their father's birthday, the sisters would get up before dawn and sneak out to the barn to do the milking for him. Mostly, though, Marge preferred to help in the kitchen, developing the skills that made her a stand-out home chef all her life.

Along with her sister and several cousins, Marge attended a one-room schoolhouse through eighth grade. She was nervous about moving on to the much larger Chesaning High School and tripped down the stairs on her first day, but by her graduation in 1959, she was head cheerleader and homecoming queen.

Along with farming, her father had also taught school, and that fall, Marge followed his lead and enrolled at Central Michigan University's esteemed teaching program. To pay for her education, she worked as a carhop at Jon's Drive In. She pledged Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, and in her sophomore year, at a party with the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, she met Brad. They married at Chapin United Methodist Church on Nov. 30, 1963, months after she graduated with honors.

For the next three years, Marge taught in Livonia and Midland, Mich. They moved to Oregon so Brad could attend graduate school in Eugene, and she taught in the area for a year. In 1967, Brad took a job with Ford Motor Co. and they moved to San Jose, Calif., where their daughter was born a few months later. Nineteen months after that, they had a son. Marge loved taking them to San Francisco, Napa Valley and the beach in Carmel, where she taught them the alphabet by drawing letters in the sand.

After a few years accompanying Brad on the road for Ford, the family moved to Cleveland in 1971 and then, in 1974, to their present home in the Moss Farm area of Northeast Dallas.  Marge resumed teaching in 1976, first as a substitute, and then, a few years later, as the lead fourth-grade teacher for the brand-new Merriman Park Elementary. Fourth grade was her favorite age, and among her signature lessons was a unit on the heart. She would procure a pig heart from a sausage factory for the children to investigate, and she would also draw a chalk diagram on the playground so students could walk through its chambers and experience how the blood circulated. She chaired the school's science and math concentration and represented the school at the White House.

She earned a master's degree in education in 1985 at what was then North Texas State University and also helped develop the curriculum for Enterprise City, the RISD's innovative model community where students from around the region seek and work at jobs, work at them, keep a checkbook and decide how to spend their wages. In 1989, she welcomed Brent's then-girlfriend Sandy into her classroom for a semester-long high school internship, passing on tips that Sandy still draws on today with her own students, including how to build anticipation at story time by reading slowly to build anticipation.

She officially retired and left Merriman Park in 1996 but continued teaching at Enterprise City, and she delighted in encountering former students among visiting parent volunteers. She also began training adults who were seeking teacher certification through Collin College and Texas A&M University-Commerce. She retained all of these roles until her death.

She and Brad traveled far and often, including an extended stay in Malaysia, where, for once, she was not among the shorter women in the crowd. When Brad worked in London for a three-year stretch, she found at Harrods perhaps her best score in a lifetime of shopping sales: piles of precariously stacked, stack-and-dent china in her daughter's wedding pattern. She snatched the best pieces and promptly shipped them home. Her travels with Brad continued into her final months, as they belatedly marked their 50th anniversary in Hawaii this past January, and in March accompanied Doug and Cherie on a college tour of Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

Outside work, her greatest joy was spending time with her family. Weekends often found her and Brad with Brent, a computer engineer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, who lives nearby in Plano with Sandy, a preschool teacher; Ben, a rising college junior studying economics; and Sara, a rising high school junior and multi-sport athlete in the Miracle League of Frisco. Brent remains handy with a needle, thanks to Marge's insistence that part of being a Boy Scout was sewing on his own badges.

Marge and Brad often flew to New York City to see Cherie, a fellow in the Narrative Medicine master's program at Columbia University; David, a mutual fund manager, and Doug, a rising high school senior. Marge loved walking through Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The night before every departure, she made Doug a treasure hunt with puzzle clues that led him to candy and other tokens.

For the past dozen summers, the three families have gathered in the charming beach town of Spring Lake, NJ. Mornings began with coffee and the newspaper on the front porch, and then Marge might make a blueberry pie before the board games began. Later, the family tromped down to the shore, where no one outlasted the bikini-clad Marge on a boogie board. For the dinners on the backyard deck, she always found the freshest ears of corn at the farm store and served them with plenty of butter and salt. Then, if it wasn't a pie night, everyone headed to the ice cream parlor, where she favored the espresso mocha chunk.

The extended family also often traveled together in various combinations to visit Marge's family in Michigan and to explore spots including Seattle, Paris and, perhaps best of all, Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. When hail battered them while rafting, Marge simply huddled with Sara under a tarp and laughed. They also hiked and picnicked, and of course they always made time for board games.

When Marge was at home, gaming was also a favorite pastime. She loved bridge, playing with friends most everywhere she lived, including Dallas, where she was part of a monthly group of neighborhood women. On her own, she could spend hours online playing Ticket to Ride, and her username of "egram" became a family nickname. She was also a longtime member of the Chapter One Book Review Group and the Moss Acres Women's Club.

She and Brad took up golf in the mid-1990s. While she once broke a windshield with an errant shot, she also hit a hole in one at Ridgeview Ranch in 2014. Another time, a pro who saw her shooting from the closest tees advised her to move back because at her level, she had an unfair advantage over Brad. She brought Ben to the game, as well, emphasizing a proper stance, but he could never beat her.

Not long after a golf outing this past May, she found out she had a tumor, and in June she received the cancer diagnosis. Aided by hospice care, she died with her husband, son and daughter at her bedside.

In lieu of flowers, donations to Enterprise City may be made in her memory via the RISD Excellence in Education Foundation, 400 S. Greenville Ave., Ste. 205, Richardson, TX 75081. Please designate "Enterprise City" in the check's memo line.  Online condolences can be made at www.smithfamilyfuneralhomes.com  The family is being served by Smith Family Funeral Homes, Elsie, MI.