MERCER ISLAND, WA (April 6, 2011) – A memorial service for Margaret (Gusarson) Markuson, 94, widow of Evangelical Covenant Church minister Aaron Markuson, will be conducted at 11 a.m. Saturday at Covenant Shores Retirement Community. She died April 1.
Markuson was born April 30, 1916, in South Dakota. She was married May 18, 1940. Her husband preceded her in death.
Markuson ministered alongside her husband at Covenant churches in Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Washington, and California, as well as during his 19 years serving as the denomination’s executive secretary of youth ministry, now the Department of Christian Formation.
Survivors include two children, John Markuson and Marcia Blomgren. Covenant News Service will publish additional information as it becomes available.
I remember Aaron and Margaret Markuson so well – I was in Jr. High School and attended Camp Shagbark when Aaron was in charge of the camp – He and Margaret were in our home more than once as I grew up – My father was Frederic Pamp who was a Covenant pastor for 50 years. The memories of them both are so pleasant – my condolences to your family.
Margaret M. Markuson
Born on April 30, 1916 in Brandon, South Dakota to John Albert Gusarson and Alma Louise Johnson Gusarson, Margaret died on April 1, 2011 after having led a very long and productive life.
Devoted to her loving husband, Aaron, of nearly 70 years, she was, in his words, “the perfect preacher’s wife.” She missed his companionship terribly after he died last year in February, a few months short of 100 years.
Mom found more time for her arts and crafts as well as gardening on their five-acre plot after she and Aaron “retired” to Vashon Island, Washington in 1975. Their retirement proved elusive in a sense, since several times a week they were aboard the Seattle-bound ferry on their way to visit church members and others in hospitals and nursing homes. They often traveled to celebrate the autumn foliage on the East Coast and overseas to Europe and the Middle East, sponsoring tours for friends and acquaintances. (It’s difficult to imagine her sitting on a camel, but Kodak has documented just that.) Another point about “elusive retirement” is that they really had a hard time doing it: They served in interim pastorates at Covenant Churches in Minneapolis, Santa Barbara, and Seattle, as well as established the chaplaincy at Covenant Shores Retirement Community, Mercer Island, Washington.
Mom was a gifted gal. Brought up on the farm outside Brandon during difficult years after her dad died suddenly when she was 12, she excelled in grammar school (a one-room schoolhouse) —so much so that when the opportunity opened to attend high school in the big city, Sioux Falls, to live in an apartment with some of her girlfriends, she leapt at the chance. There her innate talents blossomed. Designing, sewing, and modeling her wardrobe, she won First Prize in South Dakota State 4H Competitions: an all-expenses-paid trip to the National 4H Convention at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago with a room at the Conrad Hilton Hotel! (Throughout her life, she loved working with her hands: sewing, painting miniatures, wood-carving, calligraphy, designing cards, making floral arrangements, even haircutting.) She met Aaron at North Park Junior College in Chicago, and that was that…
We miss her and her talents, her wit, her smiles, and her grace.
John (son), Marcia Blomgren (daughter), Carl Blomgren (son-in-law), Anders (grandson), Per-Lars (grandson) and Alison (granddaughter-in-law)
Greetings, Margaret Markuson’s daughter’s correct name is Marcia Blomgren not Blomberg. Thanks. Ted Nordlund
Editor’s note: Thank you for the corrected information.