Marjorie Jeanette Huston died September 14, 2007, in Winchester, Kansas, where she lived the last year of her 95 years under the loving care of her nieces and nephews. She was born September 7, 1912, to William Henry and Emma Elizabeth Sloan Huston, in Atchison County, Missouri. She is survived by one sister, Rose Huffaker, of Manlius, New York.

Each of the six Huston children was born in the same farm house; was baptized and later became members of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church in Blanchard, Iowa; and finished eighth grade at Eureka, a one-room country school near their home. The family farm was east of Westboro, Missouri, although their address was always Blanchard, Iowa, a town divided by the state line. In one account of her youth, Jeanette wrote they enjoyed “the many good things about growing up on the farm, including the girls taking their turn at milking, shocking grain, riding, and driving horses.”

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Jeanette’s college education corresponded with the heart of the Great Depression. Nevertheless, Jeanette completed two years at Tarkio College, earning a teacher’s certificate. She then taught two years in local schools and gave her salary, some $50 or $60 a month, to her next younger sister so she could go to college.

After two years, her sister took Jeanette’s teaching assignment and Jeanette finished a degree in history at Tarkio College in 1937. She taught at Blanchard High School for one year, and then earned a bachelor’s degree in library science from the University of Illinois in 1939.

For three years, Jeanette was a supervisor for the WPA Library Project in Missouri. She would drive from site to site, and recalled throughout her life the experiences of being a young woman alone in the towns and villages across the state.

Jeanette served as post and hospital librarian at Camp Carson, a U.S. Army post near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her youngest sister Mary worked there with her during the summer of 1943. In 1946, Jeanette went to the Wood Veterans Administration Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one of the largest in the nation. In 1952, she became the chief librarian at the newly opened VA Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, returning to Wood in 1955 as medical librarian.

Jeanette became the librarian at Tarkio College in 1960, moving her mother to Tarkio with her. Her mother died in 1963. Her first challenge was to completely reorganize the existing facility, and she moved the collection twice during her tenure. Although she had built at least six library collections from scratch during her career, it was at Tarkio College she helped plan and build a new building, Thompson Library and Learning Center.

Jeanette retired in 1977 as associate professor, librarian, and lived in Tarkio, Missouri, until 2006. During her retirement, she remained active in church, college, and community affairs, and enjoyed some extended travels. Having had a life-long love of history her family’s and her community’s she became the curator of a combined museum for the Atchison County Historical Society and Tarkio College Alumni Association when Tarkio College closed in 1992. Many of her retirement hours were spent in making the North Polk schoolhouse into a Tarkio museum. Jeanette was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution, the PEO chapter in Tarkio, and many community groups.

The Huston family ties with Tarkio College were a source of pride to Jeanette. Between 1921 and 1970, twenty-seven family members aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, in-laws, nieces and nephews attended Tarkio College and twenty have TC degrees.

Jeanette is survived by 20 nieces and nephews, about 60 great nieces and nephews, about 85 great-great nieces and nephews, and a handful of great-great-greats. She established an education trust for her family. Jeanette was preceded in death by her brothers Wyatt Huston and Raymond Huston, and her sisters Lorene Cornett and Mary Shields, two nephews and one great-niece. Jeanette established an education trust for her family.

Funeral Services: 10:30 am Friday Sept. 21, 2007, Davis Funeral Home, Tarkio, Missouri
Burial: Blanchard Cemetery, Blanchard, Iowa
Visitation: Open visitation will begin after 9:00am Thursday, Davis Funeral Home, Tarkio where the family will receive friends Friday morning from 9:30 – 10:20 am.
Memorials: Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 7418 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15208.
Services under the direction of Davis Funeral Home, Tarkio, Missouri