Marie “Decie” was born in Alexandria, LA and grew up in Alexandria as well as Port Arthur, TX. She went to college in Alexandria and became a legal secretary and a paralegal. Decie met her husband Norbert “Del” at a USO dance just prior to World War II. She was engaged when she attended that dance but upon meeting Norbert, broke her engagement. Decie and Del corresponded during the war and married August 3, 1946. They came to Steamboat on their honeymoon where Decie experienced her very first snow, a real old fashioned Routt County winter. Decie worked as a paralegal for a local attorney until she joined her husband in their new business “Del’s Jewelry”. Decie became a jewelry designer, gemstone expert and could perfectly knot a string of pearls.
Decie started the first catechism classes in Steamboat, helped form the Altar and Rosary Society and helped start the first “Little Toots” skiing classes. She designed the Little Toots logo and jacket patch.
Decie learned to ski and ice skate in Steamboat, which was no surprise as she had excelled in gymnastics and soccer in her teen years. She loved packing up the car full of kids and heading over to Howelson Hill for a day or evening of skiing, sometimes to the protest of those children. Sundays would find the family hiking and fishing and a picnic somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Decie and Del loved to visit their Arkansas Ranch and once tried to retire there but, the weather conditions were not like the Rocky Mountains. Decie loved to play cards, work crossword puzzles, grow Violets, and was an avid gardener before she had health restrictions. Decie and her husband were just short of 68 years of marriage when Del passed in June. She is survived by five of her six children; daughter Celeste Bacon; daughter Jeannette McCarty (Pat); son Paul; daughter Cecelia Delhaute Riffe (Bernt) and son David along with five grandchildren, (a soon to be great granddaughter) nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her son Jerome.
Decie was very devoted to her faith, her husband, her family and friends.
The family requests in lieu of flowers, to make donations in Decie’s name to the Holy Name Catholic Church Building Fund where something special will be chosen in her honor.