Obituary of Marjorie Lunsford Oakley

Marjorie was a native of Person County, NC, the only daughter and first born child of Lewis Crockett Lunsford and Ida Aurelia Alice Walters. Her paternal grandparents were Thomas Goodwin Lunsford and Roxanna Clayton; maternal grandparents were Edward Pickett Walters and Mary Alice Brown. Marjorie’s father died in 1937 following surgery for a head injury. Her mother Ida, who had 4 children under 7 at the time, never remarried but managed to keep the family together by holding various jobs including farming, chauffeuring, and operating a 24 hour telephone switchboard. In the late 1940’s, the family moved to Chatham County where Marjorie graduated with the Pittsboro High School class of 1949. Marjorie met and married Hubert Granville Oakley, Jr., a Chatham native, and they lived together in North Chatham for 57 years until Hubert’s death in 2012.

Marjorie’s occupations included almost 10 years at Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company in Durham before she transitioned for several years to being a full time homemaker. Later, to supplement the family income, she held a variety of part time positions including World Book Encyclopedia salesperson, a roving tax lister for the Chatham County Tax Office, a registrar for the Chatham County Board of Elections, and custodian (along with the rest of the family) for Lystra Baptist Church. The most difficult but financially rewarding of those early jobs (helped by all the family and occasionally neighbors) was as a small acreage tobacco farmer, in a field that became known to some as “Margie’s Patch”. But Marjorie found her passion in 1972 when she and her family started gardening and selling vegetables door-to-door, mostly in Carrboro. Eventually, she joined a coalition of farmers that evolved into the Carrboro Farmers Market, of which she was a founding member. Marjorie eventually transitioned to mostly selling flowers for which she is mostly remembered. She worked there alongside her mother Ida and daughter Pam for many years. Though covid brought her full time participation to an end, she continued as a market member until her official retirement this spring.

Marjorie was predeceased by her husband Hubert, parents Crockett and Ida, and her brothers Lewis, Leon, and Wilmer Lunsford. Marjorie is survived by her daughter Pam Oakley, son Gary Oakley (Mike Mills), son Mike Oakley, Mike’s children Reade Oakley (Lillian Mindich) & Olivia Oakley, their mother Meg Miller, and numerous nephews and nieces.

If you wish, in lieu of flowers, you may donate to your local animal shelter, the Masonic Home for Children at Oxford (https://mhc-oxford.org/), or a charity of your choice in Marjorie’s name.

Visitation

3:30 pm - 4:00 pm Saturday, June 15, 2024

Lystra Baptist Church

686 Lystra Road

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

27517

Celebration of Life Service

4:00 pm Saturday, June 15, 2024

Lystra Baptist Church

686 Lystra Road

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

27517

Burial

Lystra Baptist Church Cemetery

686 Lystra Road

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

27517