Margie “Marty” V. Mason
February 17, 1934 – March 13, 2024
Margie “Marty” Mason, 90 of Sweet Home passed away Wednesday March 13, 2024. She was born February 17, 1934 to Ruby Lee (Simpson) and Walter Jefferson Mead in Blakely, Georgia.
Margie and her four brothers grew up in various towns in Georgia, Texas and Florida while the family “followed the work” and eventually settled in Houston, Texas around 1947.
From 1949 to 1972, being a beautiful woman, Margie acquired four husbands who gave her six children, moving with them from Lake Wells, Fl. to Santa Cruz, Ca. (1959-1970) and then on to Sweet Home (1971) where she adopted the nickname “Marty” and lived the rest of her adult life. She used to say, “my picker is broke” and said those marriages taught her a lot….Good and Bad. She and her ex’s had no hard feelings and every one of them eventually ended up visiting Sweet Home to see her and the kids.
While she had various jobs in her life such as cannery worker, bartender and USDA inspector, her favorite job was working as a case worker for Oregon CSD where she could use her own experiences with poverty, tragedy and trauma to help children and their families.
In 1979, she met the love of her life, Lyle Mason, one night at the Vets Club. The story goes that both loved to dance and saw each other repeatedly busy dancing with others. When Lyle finally sat down to get a breather, Marty walked up to him and said “I believe in Women’s Lib. Do you want to dance?”….and Lyle said “Well, ok!”. Marty and Lyle danced their way into a lifelong relationship with the couple marrying in 1980 and remained together close to 44 years until her recent passing. During her long illness and as she started to go blind, Lyle took great care of her ensuring she felt safe, loved, and cared for. The family is so grateful to him for the continual love he provided.
In the 80’s and 90’s, she spent most of her life babysitting her grandchildren and many others as well. She was a loving but strict grandma/babysitter remembered for always having plenty of toys to play with, trips to garage sales (they could spend a quarter each) and making them take naps so she could watch her soap operas…If they got out of line, she had a RARELY used wooden paddle with all their names on it that would be used to scare them into order.
When asked about her biggest joy in life, she would repeatedly say her kids/grandkids, music and her “love of God.” Her biggest tragedies were the loss of her daughter Sheila when she was 15 months old in 1954, the loss of her mother in 1971 and in the same year, becoming a Gold Star Mother when she was notified two hours after moving to Sweet Home that her son Terry had been killed in Vietnam.
Marty was raised in the Pentecostal Church of God but the last 40 years of her life, she was a devout “born again” Christian that lived her beliefs. She forgave everyone that had caused her pain, asked forgiveness by all she could find for previous “unchristian” like behavior and most importantly “forgave herself because Jesus forgave her”. Marty was a Christian, adventurous, feisty, smart, brave, and loving person who will be remembered for her wisdom, passion, and kindness to others. She was an inspiration to her family and friends alike. We will miss her tremendously.
Marty is survived by her husband Lyle Mason, children: Theresa (Laune) Brown, Lynn Mankin, Rick (Melissa) Autry, Kevin Mason, all of Sweet Home, Travis (Bekka) Autry of Crestview, Florida, Jennie (Cory) Little of Eugene; brothers: Luther Mead of Coldspring, Texas, Walt (Pam) Mead of Redding, California, Steve (Jill) Mead of Houston, Texas. She is survived by 14 grandchildren, 38 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great -grandchildren.
Marty was preceded in death and looking forward to seeing again daughter Sheila (1954), son Terry (1971), son Lance (2015), sister Jean (2008), brother Wayne (2017) sisters-in-law: Verlie, Sally and Carolyn.
Private family services will be held in June at Gilliland Cemetery. Sweet Home Funeral Chapel is handling arrangements. www.sweethomefuneral.com.