Marjorie Catherine Bryce (“Margie”) was a lifetime resident of the Gila Valley. She passed from this life peacefully at the age of 89, in the early morning hours of Monday, December 26, 2022, in Safford Arizona with her family at her bedside.
Marjorie was born into a loving home on March 10, 1933, in Safford, Arizona to Gilbert Harding and Myra Young Wheelock. She was the youngest of four children. Her family were the owners of the Young & Ridgeway store on Main Street in Safford, AZ (current location of The Main Street Bean) and other pecan and farming ventures.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her older sister Inez Ridenour (Bill) of Kingman, AZ; two older brothers, Gilbert H. Wheelock (Lyn) of Yorba Linda, CA and Dr. G. Richard Wheelock (Mary) of Del Mar, CA. Margie married Terrill E Bryce (deceased) and later divorced. Margie is survived by her three sons, Brad Bryce (Christy) of Houston, Texas; Duff Bryce of College Station, Texas; Scott Bryce (Renon) of Sandy, Utah, ten wonderful grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
Margie grew up in Safford and attended Safford High School, she loved sports and played on both the tennis and basketball teams. After graduation she attended Eastern Arizona Junior College and Arizona State University. Later she and her husband Terrill attended and graduated from the University of Arizona where Margie received her teaching degree.
After several moves around the country the young family settled in Thatcher, Arizona where she started teaching 6th grade. She loved teaching and truly cared and loved her students. Every year she would read the book “Where the Red Fern Grows,” to her students, always fighting back tears at the end of the book, each and every year. She came up with the jingle “The Helping-Verb Song” and would have her students sing it as part of their English instruction. After retirement, she was always thrilled to run into her former students and would often tell her family about them.
She had many close friends that she enjoyed doing things with – from toll painting, traveling, dinners and playing sequence every week. These friends brightened her life and were a treasure to her.
She was loving, very charitable, always thinking of others and very compassionate. She did not want others to fuss over her and never wanted to be a burden to others. She lived a truly Christ-like life and loved her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews dearly.
Graveside funeral services for Marjorie will be conducted Saturday afternoon, January 14, 2023, at 2:00 p.m., at the Safford Cemetery.
The family will receive friends Friday evening, January 13, 2023, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., at the Vining Funeral Home.
Online condolences may be offered at www.viningfuneralhome.com
Arrangements are entrusted to Vining Funeral Home.
