Velma Marjorie Gipe

Marjorie Gipe, 104, of Shenandoah, IA, formerly of Malvern and Glenwood, IA, passed away on March 25, 2015 at the Gardenview Care Center in Shenandoah.
Graveside services will be held at 11:00 a.m on Monday, March 30, 2015 at the Malvern Cemetery with Reverend Carl Phillips offiating. Visitation will be from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 29, 2015 at the Loess Hills Funeral Home in Malvern.

In lieu of flowers, memorials to: Strahan United Methodist Church

Marjorie Gipe, age 104, long-time resident of Mills County and Page County, Iowa, died at 6:00 AM on March 25, 2015 at Garden View Care Center in Shenandoah, Iowa.

Marjorie was born Velma Marjorie Cole on June 20, 1910 in Emerson, Iowa on a farm owned and operated by her father, Arthur Garfield Cole and her mother Carrie O'Donnell Cole.

Marjorie attended grade school at a one-room school house in Emerson and graduated from Shenandoah High School. She met her future husband, Emmett Gipe, while sitting side by side as they played violins in the Gipe & Cole family orchestra. The couple was united in marriage in 1930 in Maryville, Missouri.

Marjorie's working life constituted of two careers; as a farm wife and as a photographer. Additionally, Marjorie was an avid genealogy researcher who worked up all branches of the Gipe and Cole families and their pioneering history in settling Mills County, Iowa.

Marjorie was a self-taught computer user who, at 97-years-old, not only created a genealogy web page recording family events but her own internet blog. She was also an accomplished artist who took many art courses at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in pursuit of a Fine Arts degree.

Marjorie was active in community affairs and a member of the Strahan Methodist Church where she taught many Sunday School classes. In 1981, she was named "Homemaker of the Year" by the Extension Home Economics Committee for her work with youth in her church, and working with handicapped and elderly.

When Emmett retired from their farm in Strahan, Iowa, they moved to Glenwood, Iowa where they operated Gipe Photography Studio for many years. Upon the death of her husband, Marjorie moved from Glenwood to Shenandoah, Iowa where she was active in the youth group of the Shenandoah Methodist Church and in the bell choir.

Preceding her in death are her parents; husband, Emmett Gipe, on March 24, 1984; her son, Donald Gipe on August 20, 2004; a brother, Frank Cole; and two grandsons, Richard and Steven.

She is survived by her daughter, Geraldine Manchester and husband Ray of Carlisle, NY; her son, Douglas Gipe and wife Colleen of Malvern, IA, daughter-in-law Helen Gipe of Minneapolis, MN; six grandchildren; Christine Olmstead and husband Christopher of Tucson, AZ, Mary Kaye Sprague and husband Howard of Silver Springs, MD, Barbara Gipe of Des Moines, IA, Stacy Thiele and husband Tom of Dallas, TX, David Gipe and wife Cindy and Daniel Gipe and wife Kim, all of Minneapolis, MN, three great-grandchildren; and one great-great grandchild.