E-47-19

Obituary

Obituary for Marjorie Kopper

Marjorie (Margie) Jane Pickell Kopper was 93 years old when she passed away on March 31 in Stockton, California. She was a native Southern Californian, born in Hollywood to James Martin Pickell and Annie Barbara Hilliard Pickell in 1923. Margie had a younger brother, James M. Pickell, Jr. Margies parents worked at Vitagraph Studios, one of the first movie studios in the business. Her dad left the studio for work in the oil industry, and eventually a job transfer took the family from Southern… California to Kern County in 1941.
Margie attended school in Huntington Beach and graduated from Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles in 1941. She enjoyed learning shorthand, typing and business law. She was a dedicated disciple of Christ from a young age and was active in the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Among many activities, Margie enjoyed riding the streetcars throughout the Los Angeles area, skating with her mother and playing on the warm Southern California beaches. She spent most of her summers with her grandparents and cousins on Balboa Island, where her grandparents worked and had built one of the first homes on the island.
When the family relocated to Bakersfield shortly after her graduation from high school, Margie was able to put her stenography skills to good use working for the Agricultural War Board. In 1945, she went to work as the secretary to the superintendent of Bakersfield City Schools.
Through friendships at the Mount Vernon MB Church with Francis Kopper Krause and Florence Kopper Siebert, Margie met Arthur Kopper. They were married in 1947. Their jobs took them to Wasco and then to Shafter where Art worked for a number of car dealerships, including Haberfelde Ford and Gaede Pontiac, Buick, GMC, later Garlatz, in body repair and painting. In 1970 they were able to open their own body shop in Shafter, Arts Body and Paint. While Art was involved in the auto industry, Margie had several jobs as a bookkeeper in Shafter, including the Richland Co-op Cotton Gin and the General Potato and Onion Distributors.
Art and Margie joined the Shafter MB Church in 1952. They were joyfully devoted to each other and their children for fifty years, until Art passed away in 1997. Their family grew with the addition their three children and spouses: Richard and Bev Kopper, of Clovis; Mark and Pam Parrott, of Stockton; and Dr. Tim and Sandra Kopper, of Kingsburg. Art and Margie also cherished their eight grandchildren and their spouses. Margie has loved and has been loved by her seventeen great grandchildren.
Margie lived in Shafter for almost 60 years and truly considered the community her home. For the past five years she has enjoyed living in Stockton, surrounded by many generations of her family.
While Art was still living, he and Margie had enjoyed travelling throughout the West Coast, to Hawaii, the East Coast and Canada. After his death, Margie was able to continue that pleasure with cruises to Alaska, to New England and eastern Canada, and a recent cruise in 2015 with her 91 year old cousin to Hawaii and back.
Margie is interred at the Shafter Memorial Park. A memorial service will be held on Sunday, April 23, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. in the Shafter Mennonite Brethren Church. Memorial gifts may be directed to the Shafter MB Church.