Marion ‘Sis’ (Hermes) Jacques

Her parents bought her a Gulbransen upright player piano on which she practiced and learned to play quite well. When her parents moved to Garden the piano came too. Today the piano can be found in the home of her grandson, John VanRemortel.

Marion’s Uncle Clarence Maloney would often take her and her brother Lewis to the Green Bay Packer football games where Clarence worked concession stands for his brother Maurice Maloney, from then on she was always an avid and devoted Packer fan. Marion also loved going to dances at Bay Beach in Green Bay with her parents and to the movies with her friends.

Her father moved the family to Garden, Mich., in 1935 where he continued his fishing interest out of Van’s Harbor. Marion met Stanley Jacques while attending dances in Garden. On Nov. 28, 1935, they were married in St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Garden by Father V.C. Savageau. Witnesses were Meta Winter and Lewis Hermes. Stanley, the son of Edward and Blanche (Farley) Jacques preceded her in death on June 2, 1960. Marion’s mother passed away at her home in 1951 and her father passed away in 1965. Her brother Lewis passed away in 1962, her brother Richard in 2000 and her brother William in 2008.

Marion worked for the Fuller Brush Company as a full time dealer for 31 years. She covered all of the territory between Gladstone and Gulliver, Mich. On April 26, 1976, she was awarded the highest honor that the Fuller Brush Company could bestow upon a dealer, the Alfred C. Dad Fuller Award, at an awards banquet in Chicago. In 1978 she was named the top sales person in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Marion was a member of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Garden and a past member of the Mother Seton Circle. She also served on the churches centennial committee. She was a charter member of the Garden Peninsula Historical Society, which was founded in 1975, and for a time served as treasurer. She later became an “Honorary Life Member.”

For the most part she was happy just being home after retirement. She continued driving however until turning 92 making trips to Escanaba, Kingsford and Manistique. Except for recent years she had enjoyed working in her home and yard. Her mother’s rose bush, peonies, and at one time sweet peas, and hollyhocks along a white picket fence were very special to her. Marion’s other joys were baking, reading, watching her favorite television shows, spending time with family and friends, and of course watching all of those Packer football games. For many, many years Marion prepared and held holiday dinners at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter for her family which would often include relatives as well at her home in Garden. When she was about 80 years of age her daughter Barbara took over those family dinner gatherings.

Marion suffered a stroke on Friday, Aug. 12, 2011. She remained living at her home in Garden with the help of her children until she entered the Bishop Noa Nursing Home in Escanaba, on March 19, 2013. Along with family she celebrated her 100th birthday on Saturday, Feb. 25, in the Sister Pat room at the Bishop Noa Home.

Mother was a women who had incredible courage, strength, perseverance and a deep faith who faced many challenges in her lifetime and survived them all with dignity and grace. She was the matriarch of her branch of the Hermes-Jacques family. She lived long, worked hard, and was wise, humble and fiercely independent. Mom, we hold you in our hearts and in our memories where you will remain as part of us always. We have been truly blessed by the gift of your presence in our lives, by your example on how life should be lived. May God give you safe passage to your final home in heaven to be with Him there forever.

Marion is survived by her children John “Jack” (Jane) Jacques of Nashville, Tenn.; Barbara (Dale) VanRemortel of Kingsford, and Thomas Jacques of Gladstone-Garden, Michigan. She is also survived by her grandchildren Richard “Rick,” John Michael, Diane, Matthew, Lindsay, Joseph, Susan, John and James. Marion is further survived by eighteen great grandchildren and three great-great grandsons, John Willem “Jacks” Fabling, James Scott Fabling and Richard Tate Fabling. She is also survived by several nephews and nieces and by relatives in the greater Green Bay, Wis. area.

She was preceded in death by her parents Joseph and Lillian; her husband Stanley; her great-granddaughter Elizabeth “Beth” Murray; by brothers and sisters in law Lewis Hermes, Richard and Cleo Hermes and William and Charlene “Dolly” Hermes, and by several aunts and uncles.

Funeral services will be held on Thursday, May 24, at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Garden, Mich. Visitation will be at the church from 10 to 11 a.m. followed by the Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m. A luncheon will be held after Mass in the church hall. Burial will be in the New Garden Cemetery. In lieu of flowers one may have Masses said or memorials made to a charity of ones choice.

The Messier-Broullire Funeral Home of Manistique and Garden is assisting the Jacques family with the funeral arrangements.

Marion’s family wishes to thank all those who were understanding, patient, gentle and kind to her while she was at the Bishop Noa Home. We would also like to thank all those who were good and kind to her through the years. God bless you all.