Marguerite M. Herken's Obituary
MARGUERITE M. HERKEN
Oct. 25, 1911-March 16, 2013
Marguerite Mary Herken, 101, of The Villages, Florida, passed
away peacefully on March 16, 2013. She was the only daughter
of Earl Goff and Caroline Nieman Goff, of Leavenworth,
Kansas. A brother, Earl Jr., “Corky,” died in 1994.
Marguerite was born in Potter, Kansas, and grew up a child
of the Great Depression. (She liked to tell the story of how
men would come to a relative’s house and ask for a drink,
and recalled their puzzled expression when she handed them
a glass of water. The relative was making bathtub gin during
Prohibition.) After graduating from Potter High School,
Marguerite attended a two-year college and worked, briefly, as
a retail sales clerk in Kansas City before discovering her real
passion, teaching. Her students at Oak Hill Elementary, near
Easton, Kansas, remember Marguerite as a committed and
caring teacher, one who believed in the Biblical injunction that
“the quality of mercy is not strained.”
In 1939, she married attorney Bernard “Si” Herken of Easton,
Kansas. Si was then serving as Treasurer of Leavenworth
County. The following year, a daughter, Dorothy “Dee” Herken,
was born. During the Second World War, Marguerite and Dee
followed Si around the country to various Army postings,
finally settling in San Pablo, California, where Bernard worked
at the Permanente Metals Corporation in nearby Richmond,
building Liberty ships for the war effort, and Marguerite
became a secretary at the local school district. In 1947, a son,
Gregory, was born. Shortly afterward, the family moved to the
Denver area, where Si took a job as a lawyer with the Veterans
Administration.
In 1956, Bernard, Marguerite, Dee, and Gregg moved back to
the Bay Area, when Si was transferred to the VA’s San Francisco
office. During the next twenty-some years, Marguerite continued
her work as a secretary to the principal at elementary and
middle schools throughout San Mateo Country. While living in
California, Marguerite and Si enjoyed taking classes in ballroom
dancing at Arthur Murray Studios. In retirement, Marguerite
became an accomplished seamstress, making clothes for her
family and friends, and took up a new hobby, which she enjoyed
with daughter Dee: Texas-style line dancing.
In 1988, Si, Marguerite and Dee moved to Pine Lakes, a
retirement community near Ft. Myers, Florida. Following
Bernard’s death in 1990, mother and daughter relocated to The
Villages, near Orlando, where they would reside for the next two
decades. Active even into her nineties, Marguerite continued to
live independently, enjoying visits to her son, daughter-in-law,
and grandson in Alexandria, Virginia and Santa Cruz, California,
and driving her golf cart with Dee around The Villages.
A devoted and selfless mother, loving wife, and loyal friend,
Marguerite is remembered fondly by all those whose lives she
touched, including former
students at Oak Hill
Elementary, some now in
their nineties.
She is survived by daughter,
Dorothy, son Gregg, and
grandson Benjamin Herken.
At Marguerite’s request,
her ashes will be interred
alongside her husband’s
casket at Royal Palm Memorial Gardens
Cemetery in Punta Gorda,
Florida. An informal
gathering of family and
friends to remember her
life will be held in early
April, 2013, at Beyers
Funeral Home in Lady Lake,
Florida. Online condolences may be left for the family at [email protected].
or at the cemetery website: www.royalpalmmemorial.com.
What’s your fondest memory of Marguerite?
What’s a lesson you learned from Marguerite?
Share a story where Marguerite's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Marguerite you’ll never forget.
How did Marguerite make you smile?