Marjorie Graham

Marjorie M. Sadler Graham died on November 11, 2015.
A celebration of life will be held at 12 noon, Monday, November 16, 2015 at First Baptist Church with Rev. Bill Graham officiating. She will be buried alongside of her husband at Edgewood Cemetery in Trenton, KY.
Visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. Sunday at McReynolds-Nave & Larson Funeral Home.
She was born on June 10, 1919 on the family farm located a short distance from the small Kentucky town of Trenton. She graduated from Trenton High School in 1937. Then, with the help of the local doctor who found a nursing school for Marjorie and a sister to attend, the two traveled to Tampa, FL where they entered nurses training at Gordon Keller School of Nursing on Davis Islands in Tampa Bay. When asked why they went to Florida to school, these two young women who had probably never been any further than 40 miles from their Kentucky home, Marjorie said, “There was no out-of-state tuition.” It was in Tampa she met and married her late husband, William C. Graham (Bill) who worked at McCloskey Shipyard on Hooker’s Point building concrete boats used in WWII. When Bill died in 1989, they had been married 47 years.
The couple moved to Clarksville, TN in the late 40s where they reared 4 children: living in Clarksville the Reverend William C. Graham Jr (Bill) married to Mary Lou and have two children Kathy Lee (Tom) of Haverhill, MA and Andrew (Lynn) of Greensboro, NC; living in Saugatuck, MI Carroll married to Chris Yoder and have two children Christian (Jen) of Medina, TN and Jerusha Hayden of Nashville, TN; living in Clarksville Philip married to Brenda and have two children Lewis (Amanda) of Hermitage, TN and Ashley Elizabeth of Nashville, TN; and Suzanne married to the late William McLeod and living in Columbus, OH where she raised their three children, Cameron (Nicole) of Columbus, OH; Philip of New York, NY; and Logan of Cincinnati, OH. Marjorie and Bill loved their children deeply and doted on their spouses, but they absolutely cherished those 9 grandchildren of whom they were so proud. Marjorie also found much joy in her great grandchildren, Carrie, Garrett, Nicholas, Matthew, Brennan, Reese, Ian and Corbin.
Marjorie’s work experience in Clarksville included time at the old hospital on North Second Street in the city, but her nursing job in the Emergency Room (ER) on the night shift at Memorial Hospital on Madison Street was where she found her niche. On her 80th birthday, one of the doctors she worked with at Memorial wrote to her about his trust in her judgement. Paraphrasing, he said if Mrs. Graham called him from the ER about a patient stating that he could come to the ER the first thing in the morning, he went back to sleep; however, if she said he needed to come right away, he did. She was compassionate and quick thinking with an extraordinary talent for diagnosis. Her family grew up with ER stories and the somewhat out of the ordinary conversations around the breakfast table when she came home from her night shift. Being used to the ER stories and without thinking about guests, one of the children’s college friends turned sort of green as he listened to a story about something that occurred during her shift. Marjorie shared funny incidents and triumphs, sometimes her sadness from a loss, and because of what had happened on her shift she laced her stories with warnings about careless car and motorcycle drivers when there were teenagers at the table.
While writing about Marjorie, it is often difficult to separate her life from her husband’s as they were so intricately entwined; yet, after his death she continued finding her place loving the Lord, her church, and her family. Marjorie created an extended family from those she adopted into the realm of her fellowship as they sat around her kitchen table or at the larger dining room table, always welcomed. Each one of her expanded family reveled in Marjorie’s love, her concern for each person’s wellbeing, and sharing her gift of hospitality serving delicious meals using cooking skills and recipes she learned from her Momma as she was growing up on the family farm.
Alongside her brothers and sisters Marjorie labored on the family-owned farm in Kentucky where her work ethic was planted and cultivated in the fields along with the crops. Their father’s death when she was 10 years old reinforced the idea that everyone had to work to help Momma keep and maintain the farm. Hard work kept the family intact. It was during those early years, this concept of work equaling security was hard-wired into her core being. Her late parents, Ella and Colby Sadler, gave her 11 siblings. Two sisters and one brother are still living, Maxine Burge, Clarksville; Jewel Johnston, Ormond Beach, FL; and Richard Sadler, Trenton, KY. She was preceded in death by brothers Louis, Clarence (Skeeter), William (Bill), John Colby (JC), Malcolm; and sisters, Douglas, Polly, and Lois.
Marjorie was a member of First Baptist Church (FBC) in Clarksville for over 50 years. She had many jobs in the ongoing life of the church. She became an integral part of the church’s youth music ministry. She traveled with the high school aged choir called the Majority – “God plus 1 in any situation is a majority.” She was the meal planner and chief cook on 17 summer trips. Part of almost every meal was her homemade biscuits. In a particular place of pride on a wall in her kitchen was an artist rendition of a basket of steaming biscuits with the caption provided by the students along with all their signatures from that summer’s trip. The words read, “Don’t mess with the cook’s buns.” Of particular delight was the women’s Sunday School Class she taught for a many years. These women gave of their time and money for missions. One of their on-going class ministry projects was to provide postage money for packages containing medicines for a nurse on the mission field in Tanzania. Marjorie also collected the donated medicines from local doctors to send to her nurse friend as it was sometimes difficult to buy medicines on the local African economy. She was so proud of that class; their giving and caring. She loved sharing her nursing skills and her love of the Lord. She traveled to Brazil 7 times on medical mission trips. Marjorie was 89 years old when she made her last trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once she went with a mission team to Poland, and often traveled to the coal mining fields of eastern Kentucky where her church had an ongoing ministry. When FBC began its Good Samaritan ministry, a completely free clinic, Marjorie volunteered. She was given a Lifetime Achievement Award when she clocked in 1220 volunteer hours. She was given the Mayor’s Citizen of the Year Award in the year 2000 “For outstanding citizenship and service to the city of Clarksville, Tennessee.” As an active member of the Joseph W. Byrns 367 Order of the Eastern Star, she served as Worthy Matron in 1979.
When she decided it was time to sell her home in Clarksville, Marjorie moved to Saugatuck, MI to live with her daughter and her husband where she stayed for 4 years before moving back to Tennessee. She made many friends in Michigan and worshipped at Community Church of Douglas.
As she is remembered, flashes of who Marjorie was moves across our minds. She delighted in being out and about and was always ready to go – anywhere, but preferred someone else drive. She often waited for the early arrival of a grandson or granddaughter to help her put up her Christmas decorations and wrap her gifts. She never quite had enough time to label and fill those 35 plus stockings for those who came for Christmas dinner and stayed through supper for leftovers. Daughters, daughters-in-law, or granddaughters were corralled for that stocking-stuffing job. Part of her Christmas giving included homemade coconut cakes for close friends. She grinned when she said that lots of folks wanted to get on her gift list. Marjorie often emphasized her point by putting her index finger just a little off center and on top of her middle finger while pointing towards the air around her listener. Every grandchild can make that gesture perfectly. Her home was always open whether she knew you were arriving or not. If she knew you were coming, she made your favorite meal. She loved well and was well-loved. She will be missed, but her legacy of sharing Christ’s love, His salvation, and her faith in Him resounds through her extended family, her children and their spouses, her grandchildren and their spouses, and her great grandchildren. She is at home with Him. Thanks be to God.
In lieu of other remembrances, please make any donation to The Good Samaritan Ministry, First Baptist Church, 435 Madison Street, Clarksville, TN 37040, or designate a gift labeled Missions and send to Community Church of Douglas, P.O. Box 338, Douglas, MI 49406.
“Well done, good and faithful servant. . . .” Matthew 25:23a (KJV)
Arrangements are in the care of McReynolds-Nave & Larson Funeral Home. (931) 647-3371. NaveFuneralHomes.com.