Marguerite Coleman Judy, 86

Marguerite Coleman Judy, 86, died Friday, Feb. 11, 2005 at her home in Careywood, Idaho.

Marguerite was born April 11, 1918, at New Hampton, Missouri to Alverta Runyan Coleman and Charles Edgar Coleman. She attended elementary schools in Missouri and Wyoming, and graduated from high school at New Hampton at age 16.

Marguerite attended normal school at Marysville, Missouri. After one year, at age 17, she took her first teaching post at Wooderson School in Missouri. Wooderson was a one-room school containing grade's one through eight. Marguerite's oldest student was one year younger than she. She recounted how she played baseball with her students at recess, and once had to deliver a report to the local school board sporting a black eye from a ground ball that took a bad bounce.

Marguerite placed great value on education, and was determined to earn a college degree. However, this was the era of the Great Depression, and she had to content herself with teaching in the winter and taking courses, when she could afford them, in the summer.

In 1940, Marguerite went to work with her mother in the kitchen of a logging camp in the Wolf Mountains, near the Montana/Wyoming state line. There she met Edgar Dean Judy, and they were married that summer at the Crow Indian Mission near Lodgegrass, Mont. She taught school one more winter. Then the couple moved to locations in Colorado and Utah where Ed could work in industries related to the World War II war effort. These years included the births of daughters Nova Jo and Tamara.

In 1948, the family moved to Careywood. Their first home was a log cabin and farm high up the Blacktail Road, which at that time was remote and difficult to access at least half the year. In 1951, they moved to the Careywood farm near Highway 95 where Marguerite resided until her death.

For most of the next four decades, Marguerite and Ed operated a dairy and raised registered shorthorn cattle. In addition to her home maker duties, Marguerite worked on the farm and its books, drove school bus, worked other jobs off the farm to build her children's college funds, and took college courses when she could.

In 1965, Marguerite returned to teaching at Old Farmin School in downtown Sandpoint, Idaho. She taught third grade until her retirement in 1984. Throughout her second teaching career, Marguerite spent school-year evenings correcting papers and making lesson plans late into the night, after her family had gone to bed. She took special satisfaction in working on approaches to make arithmetic fun and easy to grasp.

Marguerite achieved her life-long goal of earning a college degree in 1972, after she already had helped put two of her daughters through college. She graduated from the University of Idaho with a bachelor's degree in education.

In her later teaching career and retirement, Marguerite was an active member of the Lambda Chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa, a teaching sorority. She and Ed traveled extensively, taking trips to Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, and Alaska. She also was a member of the Careywood Sew-and-Sew Club, a fabric crafts group. She created many quilts of her own and quilted many tops left to her by her grandmothers. She displayed her quilts in several exhibits, including the Bonner County Fair and the Bonner County Historical Museum.

Marguerite was a member of First Christian Church in Sandpoint. In later years she often attended Mass at Catholic churches in Sandpoint and Clark Fork, Idaho.

For several years, Marguerite devoted her time to caring for Ed in his last illness, until his death in 2000. After Ed's death, Marguerite enjoyed family, reading, RV camping and traveling in the Northwest with her daughters as long as her health permitted.

Survivors include daughters Nova Jo Kellogg and Tamara Judy, both of Careywood; Eddie Sue Judy of Clark Fork; foster son Jay Broncheau of Lapwai, Idaho; grand children Kenda Russell of Careywood, Ed Braun of Nez Perce, Idaho, and Mary Zingg of Annapolis, Maryland; foster grand son Rick Broncheau of Lapwai; great-grand children Rachael Doty, Jericka Russell, and Rusty Zingg; and caregivers extraordinaire Sherry Dodson and Wanda Mills.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 16, at the Sandpoint Community Hall. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Alpha Delta Kappa Scholarship fund at the memorial service or in care of Eva Whitehead, 1366 South Center Valley Road, Sandpoint, ID. 83864.