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We are sad to announce the death of Marge Mead,
an extraordinarily important member of the League for many years.
A Celebration of Life service will be held to honor her and her late husband Frank on Sunday, April 28, 2024, 3:00 p.m., at the All Saints Episcopal Church, 9502 W. Hutton Dr, Sun City (on the corner of Burns and Hutton). The family will also be sharing the service by zoom if you are unable to attend in person. A zoom link will be available closer to the date of the funeral. If interest in receiving it, please let Carol Mattoon know, suncityarizona@yahoo.com or 623-815-1019.
If you would like to send the family a card, send it to her son Terry who took her into his home and cared for her for the last 4 years of her life. Terry Mead Law & Mediation PLLC, P.O. Box 8186, Glendale, Arizona 85312; 602-843-8691, terry@terrymeadlaw.com
Most new members in our League may not have known her because she has been absent from our lives for several years due to Parkinsons and dementia. But she was a major asset to our League, in addition to about every other important organization out there! Marge was a vibrant, fun, dedicated, good-hearted, and hard-working League member for many, many years. She was always a delight and made work fun. In 2000, she was the first recipient of our League's "You Make a Difference" award.
She was the secretary extraordinaire of the small group who spent two years writing and helping pass the Clean Elections Act in 1998. She collected signatures at libraries, grocery stores, and every festival, parade, and gathering that existed during our campaign to get Clean Elections on the ballot.
Marge was a college English professor during her career life. And she used these skills in the many organizations in which she was involved, especially the League.
In 2001, when the Patriot Act was enacted, our League stepped forward and held a community-wide educational event, "Balancing Civil Liberties and National Security", at the UU Church. We had standing room only (300+ people) because it was such a hot topic. Afterward, Marge and I wrote an instructional paper, "How to Conduct a Community-Wide Forum" for the League. When the then-LWV-US president, Kay Maxwell, came to AZ and stayed with our local league president, Jeana Petersen, we gave her a Patriot Act packet that included the instructional paper. Fast forward to 2004, our League received the LWV-US "Citizen Award" for "Connecting Citizens with Government" at the national convention for the work we did in writing, educating voters, and passing a state-wide initiative, hosting several community-wide forums, including one on "Water--the New Liquid Gold", and the Patriot Act. LWV-US not only put our "organizing materials" and “How to” document on their website but also on a resource CD that they included in every delegate's packet to take home and use. Thanks to Marge and her English teaching background, punctuation, grammatical, and writing skills, our paper, we later learned, was an inspiration to many. Such an honor!
As Bonnie Saunders stated, “Even the AZ State Legislators respected her, although they probably didn't like her because of her cogent testimonies against so many of their bills. One year, some of them joked that they would like to send her on an all-expense-paid cruise around the world!”
Marge had a delightful personality, loved her huge family (8 children), was a loyal friend, and stalwart worker. She was a team player. The League was lucky to have her! She "Made a Difference" in so many people's lives, our local and state League, and on democracy itself.
By Carol Mattoon, her good friend, collaborator, and comrade
Over the years, together we took on huge, unattainable goals and projects, and made them happen, with love, laughter, and determination, and much help from other dedicated League members!
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