AnonymousMay 28, 1923 – August 5, 2019
Marguerite (Margie) Jean Wadle Kelley Sweet Livingstone died peacefully in her sleep the morning of August 5th, 2019, over two years after suffering a stroke on June 7th, 2017. She was 96. Margie was born in Iowa, an orphan, was adopted by John and Lillian Wadle, and was raised on her Grandfather Hoch’s farm near Bauer, Iowa.
When Margie was 13, her mother took a job in Klamath Falls, Oregon and Margie attended Sacred Heart Academy there — her innate good spirits stood her in good stead. After high school, Margie and her mother moved Chico, CA where Lillian worked in Uncle Benny’s Cafe and Hotel while Margie attended Chico State. When WWII began, she found work at McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento. There she met Lieutenant John Kelley and fell in love. While overseas, John flew 35 combat missions out of England as the navigator on the B-24 Liberator, “Double Trouble,” with the 467th Bomb Group.
Near the end of the war John and Margie married and lived in Pasadena, CA, where he became a stock broker with Merrill and Lynch and later a Federal bank inspector. Margie became a legal secretary at Hahn and Hahn in Pasadena. Their daughter, Susan, was born there in 1946.
After John died, in 1986 and Margie married Charles Sweet, their long-time camping buddy, the following year and they lived in La Verne, CA. Margie and Chuck, often with his daughter Carol Isakson, traveled in their VW camper-van over much of the USA. They also took several European trips.
When Chuck died, in 1989, Margie moved to the Encina Royale senior’s community in Goleta, CA, to be near her daughter. There, she participated in ER activities and made many friends. She started taking an Adult Ed writing class in Santa Barbara, in 2007, where she met Bill Livingstone. After his wife died in 2010, Margie and Bill married on February 26, 2011, when they were both 87. “Why so soon?” people would ask. “Because we weren’t getting any younger,” they would answer. They were very happy together.
Margie leaves behind, her husband, Bill, her daughter, Susan Drake and her son-in-law Rick Drake, of Goleta, her grandson, Kevin Van de Water of the US Virgin Islands, her sister-in-law, Jean Britton of West Covina, and her step-daughter, Carol Sweet of Monroe, WA.
Margie lived a full and productive life. All who knew her remember her intelligence, grace, and sense of humor. Her ashes will be scattered in the places she loved.
Margie’s family gives special thanks the caregivers she loved: Mary Wilbur, Yesenia Madrigal, Judy Herrera, Norma Martinez, Lesly Jimenez, and Maribel Valasquez. Contributions to the Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara would be appreciated.
