It wasn’t unusual for Marjorie Ting ley to dispatch her young sons to a fraternity house in Boulder with a sack of celery or other food.
Tingley and her husband, Howard Tingley, ran a grocery store near University of Colorado fraternity houses, and she was always ready to help when they ran out of something.
Her generosity extended to friends in the neighborhood. Once, a newly married couple, Gilbert and Sylvia Leong, moved into their new home and had almost no kitchen goods. Tingley gave them dishes and pans and silverware and told them to keep them as long as needed.
The friendship spawned between the families has extended to the present day, said Howard Tingley, Marjorie Tingley’s son.
Marjorie Tingley died in Denver on Oct. 23 at 94.
The Tingleys lived behind their grocery store, which was on The Hill, just west of the CU campus. The store, which they managed or were involved with from 1948 until 1954, was open from about 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Neighbors never hesitated to call after hours with something like, “We need eight pork chops. Could you go to the store and…?” The store was referred to as “the grocery store at 1020 Pleasant St.”
Marjorie Elizabeth Palmquist was born July 4, 1911, in Omaha and went to Grand Island College in Grand Island, Neb., where she met her future husband, Howard A. Tingley. They were married May 31, 1932. After Grand Island College closed, she finished her education at Sioux Falls College in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The couple lived in Omaha and then in North Platte, Neb., where Howard Tingley operated a small engine-repair shop. They lived in various other places where Howard had jobs; he worked as an air-traffic controller, a purchasing agent and a salesman. They moved to Boulder in 1944.
Marjorie Tingley was an avid sports fan, often keeping track of three games at a time – on a radio and two televisions. Her husband had been an athlete in college but never paid attention to sports after graduation, said Howard Tingley.
Marjorie Tingley sang with a Sweet Adelines women’s group and played the organ and piano at the various churches the family attended.
She was a Baptist who always chose churches, Baptist or any denomination, strictly on the basis of friendliness, not theology. One visit would indicate whether a church was friendly, said her son.
Tingley is survived by her sons, Howard Tingley of Brookings, Ore., and Charles Tingley of Bakersfield, Calif.; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Her husband and her sister, Eleanor Palmquist, preceded her in death.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-820-1223.
