Marjorie Forrest

Marjorie Marlene (Smith) Forrest, 79, daughter of the late Norman & Doris Smith, passed away Friday, August 9, 2013 at the Heart of America Medical Center in Rugby. Marjorie was a long-time resident of Berwick and Towner. She was born on June 11, 1934 in Drake. She graduated from Berwick High School in 1952. She attended Minot State Teachers College, then taught school at Kopperdahl School south of Towner, and at a country school near Tioga. Marjorie and her family lived in several communities, including these ND towns: Berwick, Tioga, Cooperstown and Edmore. Marjorie owned the Corral Bar in Towner from 1974-79. After selling the bar, she moved to Gallup, New Mexico and worked at Shalimare Motel. In 1980, she moved back to Berwick and started to pursue an associate of arts degree in earth science at Minot State University. In 1982, she graduated from Minot State University, at which time she was hired by Fallenstein-McCarthy Lumber north of Towner. They sent her to Memphis, Tenn. to the National Hardwood Lumber Association School to learn to be a lumber grader. She graduated as a certified lumber grader from Memphis, and came back to Towner to work for the company. After the lumber company closed, she worked at the North Dakota State Forestry of Towner for 18 years. Marjorie was a member of the Berwick Lutheran Church until its closing, at which time she attended the Zion Lutheran Church in Towner.

She was a member of the Dewey Homemakers Club and Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary for many years. Marjorie’s final gift of caring for others was donating her body to the University of North Dakota School of Medicine (Cancer Research).

She was preceded in death by her parents, husbands (Coleman Buer and Robert Forrest), sister-in-law Alice Sanders, and brothers-in-law Ernest Dokken, Ted Odden, Morris Halvorson, Claude Harvey, Jennings Buer, and Maynard Atkinson.

Marjorie is survived by her three children: Karen Buer, Rugby; Boyd Buer, West Fargo; and Kathleen Jamsa (Dave Hunt), Bisbee, Ariz.; two grandchildren: Coleman Buer and Nicole Buer (Cody Kee), and one great-grandson, Coleten James Kee, all of Taylorville,Ill.; sisters Mary Lou Peterson (Johnnie), Spokane,Wash. Monna May Dokken, Towner, Colleen Harvey, Mesa, Ariz., and brother, Bud (Lynda) Smith, Towner. A memorial service will be held on August 23, 2013 at 11 a.m. at Zion Lutheran Church in Towner. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Cancer Cottage in Minot.