Maxine Marringer 100th Birthday
Here's wishing a belated 100th birthday to Nicholas Robbins descendant, Maxine Marringer. Maxine was featured in an article of the Siuslaw News of Florence, Oregon last year!
Reprinted with permission from the Siuslaw News. The article was originally published April 22, 2015.
A CENTURY of Memories Florence resident Maxine Marringer turns 100 today By Chantelle Meyer Siuslaw News Maxine Marringer was born 100 years ago today in Dundee, Ore. The Florence resident celebrates this special day with her son Larry Marringer, close family friends Jane and Gary Georgeson and family members.
Larry, 67, has been a big support in her life.
“He’s taken care of me and been real good,” Maxine said.
Maxine and Larry moved to Florence in 2005 after living together in Gresham and Vernonia since 1981.
“I like it here. It’s nice and warmer,” she said. “There’s so many things to do. We eat out a lot.”
Her favorite restaurant is Kozy Kitchen, which she called a local hangout.
“They make a fuss for her there,” Larry said.
One of the reasons they like to eat out is because Maxine cooked at various cafes, restaurants and buildings through her career in the restaurant industry.
She once made lasagna for 1,000 people in Seattle at the Bell Building.
“She said they were sliding on spaghetti sauce,” Larry said.
When she retired, she was the executive chef at the Federal Reserve building in Portland.
Maxine grew up in Kelso, Wash., and lived with her grandparents at Washington Hotel. They had an old Model-T Ford. She graduated high school in 1934 with honors.
Her grandfather was good with numbers and taught her how to keep the books at the hotel.
“I grew up in a man’s world,” she said. “I had a good foundation in math and I enjoyed it because I thought a lot of him.”
Her grandmother taught her how to sew. Over her life, she cooked at at a soup kitchen in Gresham and was proud of her excellent penmanship.
“I spent 25 years on the PTA. Larry always said he got his best grades the year I was president of the PTA,” she said.
Of her three sons, only Larry survives. She has 10 grandchildren in New York, Las Vegas and Portland.
While Maxine said her health is “pretty good,” she doesn’t know how many more birthdays she wants to reach.
She said, “You get old, you don’t have any more friends. But I wouldn’t want to leave Larry, so I guess I have to stick around.”
The Marringers are a tight-knit family that worked in businesses together and stayed close through family illnesses.
“One thing I hate right now is I’m losing my memory. I think that some things you remember because you keep repeating and telling them. I can still remember some of my teachers — the good ones,” she said.
Editor Emeritus Note:
Maxine has lived in the Pacific Northwest throughout her life. Her branch of the family migrated from Plymouth County, Massachusetts to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1762 and from there to central Michigan in 1870 and on out to Oregon in 1890. She was born in Oregon in 1915, the daughter of George Henry "Hank" Robbins and wife, Alice (Wilson) Robbins and the granddaughter of Robert William Robbins and Elsie (Deyoe) Robbins. (See childhood photo of her and her sister, Rowena, in our website photo album.) Maxine married Myron Marringer in 1934. They had three sons, Robert William Marringer, born in 1936; Paul Myron Marringer, born in 1938; and Larry Eugene Marringer, born in 1947. Her husband and her two eldest sons have passed away. Maxine is very close to her niece, Patricia "Pat" Riley, daughter of Maxine's sister, Rowena. Pat also lives in Florence, Oregon. Maxine and Pat have been very active in their Deyoe Family Society over the years and have also traveled to Nova Scotia in search of their Robbins roots.
