Cover photo for Marian L. Hibbs's Obituary
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In Memory Of
Marian L. Hibbs
1921 2015

Marian L. Hibbs

October 27, 1921 — October 16, 2015

Marian L. Hibbs
Rochester:

Marian Hibbs passed quietly to our Lord's care on the afternoon of October 16, 2015. Family members were with her when she made the journey. Marian, predeceased by her beloved husband Earle, is survived by her four children, Richard (Bridgett), David (Charlene), Nancy (Mark) Cody and Steven (Katy) along with seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Marian was born, October 27, 1921 in Elkader, Iowa to Jeremiah Patrick Liddy and Mabel Kingkade Liddy. Marian had one sibling, her "baby brother" Jim Liddy. Marian and her parents lived on the family farm in Elkader until the Great Depression. With prices low, poor growing conditions, Jerry had to sell the farm. They moved to the city of Des Moines, the state capital of Iowa. Here Jerry provided a good home to Mabel and the children. The problem was that Jerry had to go on the road as a salesman of a variety of products. Marian always regretted growing up with her father gone so very much.

In Des Moines, Marian went to North Des Moines High School, North High for short. Here, Marian thrived. She was a very outgoing sociable young lady. Her list of good friends grew each year. One of those friends, Earle L. Hibbs, had a special place in his heart for Marian. They began going out in their sophomore year in school and were rarely apart. Graduation from North High came in June, 1939. It was a bittersweet time for Marian as she would miss her many girlfriends and Earle had decided to move to San Diego, CA to get a job at Hughes Aircraft with his older brother Vernon.

While Earle was gone, Marian worked at several locations, but where she found herself feeling as belonging was working for Bell Telephone. Here Marian's personality of sociability and leadership, helped her move up the ladder to where she was an exchange supervisor. She had about 25 women reporting to her in this position.

After World War II broke out, life took another change. Earle enlisted in January, 1943. He had an aptitude the army said for cryptography. Earle was sent to a number of places for cryptography and Japanese language classes. As time was drawing short before he would be shipped out, Earle and Marian decided to get married. On May 8, 1943, they were married in Columbia, Missouri.

Instead of being shipped out as they thought, the Army sent Earle to Vint Hill Farms the Army's cryptography center. Here Earle trained and actually worked deciphering actual Japanese codes. Marian, to bring in money and to keep herself occupied while Earle worked long hours, got a job. The job she got was Payroll Clerk for the historic Willard Hotel in Washington, DC. Marian talked about the Willard and her job for decades. She was so proud. In a trip to Washington, DC in the mid-1990's Marian, Earle and several of her children and their families visited the Willard. When they found Marian had worked there in the 1940's she was treated like royalty. Getting a personal tour of the behind the scenes Willard and having a wonderful snack in the restaurant, courtesy of the Willard staff. Marian beamed the entire afternoon and for days following.

After the War was over and Earle returned, the two moved to Ames, Iowa. Here Earle went to school at Iowa State University. After a few months, Marian found herself pregnant. Their first baby, Richard was born in the Spring 1947. This was a happy time for Marian. Her Mother was only an hour away, and visited quite often to help with Ricky.

Earle completed his education as an Industrial Engineer in June, 1948. Now came the most difficult time of Marian's life, as Earle found a very good job at the Eastman Kodak Company in far off Rochester, NY. Earle moved to Rochester in late 1948, leaving Marian and Rick with her parents in Des Moines. Finally the time came and Marian and Rick packed up and boarded an airplane bound for Rochester, 1000 long miles away from her parents.

During the 1950's, following their arrival in Rochester, Marian gave birth to her three other children. As they grew, Marian kept involved in all their lives. She knew all of their teachers. She was the Cub Scout Den Mother for the boys and the Brownie Leader for Nancy. As the children grew older and didn't need (or want) Mom hanging around so close, Marian found a new passion: Garden Clubs and flower arranging.

She began as a member of the Shorewood Garden Club in Greece, NY. She found she had a knack for arranging flowers and seeing the artistry involved. This was her joy in life, to have a flower arrangement with the perfect flowers to tell the story she wanted. As the kids grew up, move and more dried flowers showed up in storage areas around the house, to have on hand for that perfect part of an arrangement. Although the children did not see the excitement of the dried flowers, the Garden Club world certainly did. Marian won ribbon after ribbon in local and state shows. Some of her proudest moments were at the NY State Fair in the Horticulture Building.

It wasn't long before Marian's leadership showed forth and she moved up beyond just being part of Shorewood, but she became the District Chairperson and eventually the President of the NYS Federation of Garden Clubs. She traveled over the state for meetings, shows and continued to enter her own arrangements. But she wanted more. So she spent several years going to different classes and became a Flower Arrangement Judge. She stepped down from her presidency and did full time judgeing all over the state.

For more than 50 years, Garden Clubs and Judging were her passion and joy. She retired nly when she became incapacitated with macular degeneration. She still participated in meetings and was an honored guest at numerous club celebrations.

Marian will be remembered by all she met as a very happy outgoing woman. She was not afraid to take on responsibility, but was happy to pass it onto the up and coming youngsters. She loved her family so much. Her favorite times of the year were Christmas, where she often went way overboard for her children and the grandchildren's presents. But the importance of the holiday season was that her family would always collect in her living room on Thanksgiving and again on Christmas Eve. On this day we would always have to sing Christmas Carols in the living room and later on, around the neighborhood.

Her family suspects she will be assisting the Angels in heaven with their spring flower arrangements and she will be singing carols right alongside of them at Christmas.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Marian L. Hibbs, please visit our flower store.

Service Schedule

Past Services

Visitation

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

New Comer Cremations & Funerals

2636 Ridgeway Avenue, Rochester, NY 14626

Service

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Starts at 9:30 am (Eastern time)

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