Lemley Chapel
Serving Sedro-Woolley &
All of Skagit County Since 1935
1008 Third Street
Sedro-Woolley, WA
360-855-1288
www.LemleyChapel.com
Margaret Ellen Estes Memorial
Margaret Ellen Estes Memorial

Margaret Ellen Estes

Margaret Ellen Estes

Monday, July 12th, 2021

Margaret Ellen (Marshburn) Estes passed away peacefully in her sleep on July 12, 2021, at the age of 87, at Josephine Caring Community in Stanwood.  She was born in Orange, California to Douglas and Mary (Barnett) Marshburn.  She grew up in Southern California when the area was filled with orange orchards, the daughter of an orange and avocado grower.  After high school graduation, she attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now known as Biola University) for two years in the music program, then entered a three-year nursing program, graduating from Orange County General Hospital School of Nursing in 1956.  After two years of working at the Mount Edgecumbe Hospital in Sitka, Alaska, she returned to Orange and married Coleman Estes on April 11, 1960.  Six years later they moved as a family with two small girls to Sitka where they lived for seven years while Coleman worked at Alaska Lumber & Pulp Co.  In 1974, they moved to Washington State, residing in Rockport for 12 years until Coleman’s retirement from Seattle City Light. They then moved to Cape Horn where they lived until his death in 1996.  After moving to Cathedral City, California, in 2000, she returned to Mount Vernon until moving briefly to Virginia.  When she moved back from Virginia in 2010, she lived happily at Alpine Ridge Retirement Apartments until an extreme injury required the transition to Josephine Caring Community.

Margaret loved music (claiming that it was as essential to her as oxygen) and enjoyed playing her piano.  She also loved to read and write letters, but most of all she loved her family and friends, and always loved to laugh.  She had an amazing sense of humor.  She and her daughters could all laugh together so hard they couldn’t speak.  She didn’t think she was funny but hospital staff was seen shooting out of the room so they could bust up laughing in the hall.  She had extraordinary grace in handling extreme pain from a fractured spine and maintained her sense of humor throughout.

Margaret is survived by two daughters, Leslie of Burlington, WA, and Kelly and her husband, Jack; their three children, Coleman, Claire, and Nathan of Springfield, VA; beloved sister-in-law Elaine, and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Coleman; all of her siblings: Lowell, Allan, Roger, Neil, and Susan Carol.  There are a lot of people who passed before her who are delighted to see her again.

Memorials are suggested to Josephine Caring Community, Stanwood, WA.  The staff there were extraordinary and provided excellent, loving care for her.

Guestbook

  • Harold Jacobs

    I’m so sorry to hear of her passing.

    I’ve often wondered where she was. After my mom passed in 2011 we lost contact.

    I remember her reading Amy Carmichael’s missinas book in Sunday School class, as well as her playing the piano and singing “Day By Day”, a beautiful hymn.

    I have good memories of her and her faithful-walk and testimony.

    As well as her favorite verse — Colossians 2:3, “Hidden in Him”. Truly she is with Him now.