Marjorie Stephenson Drewry, 99, died Thursday at Redstone Village, Huntsville, Alabama. She was preceded by her husband of 77½ years Ivey O. Drewry Jr., her oldest daughter, Clare D. Billman and her granddaughter Jennifer Leigh Butler.
Survivors include children, Merry D. Butler, Victoria D. Davis, and Ivey O. “Chip” Drewry III; grandchildren, Alison Loughlin, Charles Billman, Meridith Mani, Cristine Pyle, Rachel Moss, and Sarah Moss; and nine great grandchildren.
Marjorie was born in Meek (also called Arley) Alabama, the second of six siblings. Of the six of them, only her youngest sister, Jane Root of Jonesborough, Tennessee, survives.
Marjorie grew up in Jasper, Alabama, where her family had lived for five generations. She attended Walker County High School where she and her future husband, Ivey Drewry, were members of the Honor Society. She also attended Montevallo University for one year but left to marry Ivey in 1935. She worked at a local department store in Jasper, Alabama while he completed college. After that she accompanied him to New Jersey for what she thought would be his short military career. Ivey was drawn into World War II while she stayed behind to raise their two small children. After the war she crossed the Atlantic with Clare and Merry to join her husband in the Occupation Forces in Germany. Her third daughter was born in Stuttgart, Germany. She returned on another transatlantic trip with her three daughters in 1949. Her son was born in Michigan where her husband was working on his Master’s Degree. The family moved to New Jersey, then to Virginia, then to Jasper Alabama while her husband was in South Korea for a year, and finally to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. At one point she recalled over 60 moves in her life. She joked that three moves equals one fire in the amount of lost or broken personal items.
Marjorie accompanied her husband in retirement in 1969 and remained a Huntsville resident the rest of her life. She was actively involved in the Art League, the Red Cross, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. She and her husband were long term members of the Central Presbyterian Church in Huntsville. They traveled extensively until the last ten years of her life and remained active in her Morland Shores community until Ivey’s death in 2013 when Marjorie moved to Redstone Village.
Her life was spent as a part of her husband’s life. His achievements were hers. If you think of their relationship as a cruise ship, her husband was the ship while Marjorie was the crew. Everyone noticed the great ship but it was nothing without the excellent crew, our mother. Now she is with the love of her life moving on to the next great adventure.
Visitation will be from 12 noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at Laughlin Service Funeral Home. The funeral service will follow at 2 p.m. in the chapel with the Rev. Dr. Randy Jenkins officiating. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery.
