Born December 3, 1913 in Honesdale, PA
Died Oct 27, 2010 in Tucson, AZ

Daughter of Thomas Vincent Gibbons and his wife, Emma Loretta LeStrange.

Marie was born in Honesdale, PA, where her father first worked as a
machinist but later became a stone mason. Her mother was a home-maker
but worked for a time as a teacher. Marie had one sister, Helene.

As a fourteen-year old she first met her future husband, Wag, who had
moved there from Baltimore. They were both attending high school in
Honesdale and married when she finished her nurses training in 1934.

She gave birth to four sons (Wag Jr., Dick, Glenn and John) and moved to a
farm outside Doylestown close to Philadelphia, PA. Then Wag decided to
fulfill a dream of ranching in the Southwest, so he moved the family to a
ranch in Arizona. They bought Canelo Hills Ranch in Canelo in 1949 and,
sight unseen, she moved in. Those first years were not easy, but she
soon fell in love with the area, its people and this new life. In 1957
they sold the ranch, built a house in Sonoita and had a fifth son, Tom.

Marie was very active in 4-H, Cowbelles and the Elgin Community Club,
to name a few. She drove the mail to Greaterville for many years and sat
on the school board as well. She also loved taking the family to the
dances at the Elgin Community Club once a month, as well as to the
community potluck softball games at The Cienega in Canelo.

Her love for the Sonoita-Elgin community never waned even though, a few
years after Wag's death in 2001, she sold their home to her granddaughter and her
husband then moved to Tucson, where she lived for six years. She
returned every year for Cowbelle events, the rodeos and horse racing and,
of course, the Santa Cruz County 4-H Fair, which she attended
only three weeks before her death.

She died peacefully just shy of her 97th birthday.

Contributed by Dick & Leonor Schorr

Marie & her husband Wag at their Canelo Hills Ranch ca.1950

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