Obituary of Marlene Ruth Supplee

Marlene Ruth Supplee passed away February 8, 2024, in Olympia, Washington.  She was born at home (the oldest of three children), December 12, 1935, to Walter Marinus Haycock and Ruth Brown Haycock in Salt Lake City, Utah, and lived there until 1943.  Leaving Salt Lake, the family lived in a small house trailer, going to where the jobs were:  Henderson, Nevada and Tucson, Arizona, until arriving in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1944.  

 

Marlene graduated from West Phoenix High School and attended Long Beach City College and Phoenix Junior College.  She married Charles Barton Supplee in Phoenix on June 12, 1953; they were married for four years.  After living in Phoenix, Marlene moved to Mesa, Arizona; Boise, Idaho; Norman, Oklahoma; Yuma, Arizona; and back to the Salt Lake City area of Utah. She moved to Yelm, Washington, in 2017.

 

Most of Marlene’s professional career was as a legal secretary/administrative assistant, contract transcriptionist for railroad union depositions, and a contract grant writer. She retired from a law firm in Salt Lake City.

 

Marlene was an extremely intelligent woman, who always worked below her native abilities. She loved her family and friends fiercely and tenderly. Her greatest anxieties were related to their welfare. If you really knew Marlene, you knew that her sense of self was inseparable from her relationship with God. During her most trying times, particularly in her last couple of months, she repeatedly said “I know my Father in Heaven is there… is with me.”  She suffered great remorse in those moments when she was not reserved, kind and patient. While she was brilliant, she never thought of herself as smarter than the other person.

 

Marlene’s faith, family, and friends were the most important things in her life.  An avid reader, the home was never without multiple filled bookshelves. She enjoyed world history (mostly English), gardening, crocheting, knitting, and quilting.  She made quilts and afghans, which she loved gifting to family, and she donated dozens to women’s shelters. She loved old movies (black and white), especially those that were well scripted, acted and directed; she could remember names and works of actors now obscure to most.

 

Marlene was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She and also belonged to many informal gatherings of book readers, crochet/knitters and quilting enthusiasts, the latest being “Hooks and Needles.”

 

She is survived by her son, Edwin Charles Supplee; daughter-in-law, Elaine Woods Supplee; grandchildren, Jason Charles Supplee, Cleo Stephanie Chepkwurui, Sumer Vilate Johnson, Elizabeth Rose Stoneking, and David Andre Supplee; 13 great-grandchildren, Cali Woods Supplee, Hannah Elaine Mitchell, Callis Gwynn Groves, Abbie Gail Groves, Emily Kealoha Daniels, Ivy Mae Johnson, Porter Hugh Johnson, Eden Leina Johnson, Tennessee James Johnson, Roselyn Royelle Johnson, Eilee Rose Stoneking, Cora Lynn Stoneking, and Wren Adhara Stoneking.

 

She was predeceased by her parents, Walter and Ruth Brown Haycock; brother, James Walter Haycock; sister, Nancy Ann Porritt; grandparents, Walter James Haycock, Annie Christine Jensen, Thomas William Brown, and Mabel Armstrong.

 

A funeral service will be held Thursday, February 15, 2024, 11:00 a.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Yelm Ward building, 10423 Clark Road SE, Yelm, WA 98597.

 

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