Marion Baker (Jelks) Thielman

The extraordinary life of Ms Marion Thielman came to an end on Friday, August 13 after over a century of exceptional achievement.

Marion Baker was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas on September 19, 1909 during the Presidency of William Howard Taft. She was the daughter of former Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Basil Thorpe Baker and Mary Elizabeth (Molly) Kinsworthy. (For fans of the television show, Designing Women, it might be interesting to note that the old stately house featured in the opening credits is on Scott Street in Little Rock was owned for 24 years by Marion's uncle, Edgar Burton Kinsworthy, former Attorney General of Arkansas.) Marion had an older brother, Alden Baker, late of Harrisburg, Arkansas. When Marion was seven, her mother passed away after a battle with cancer. During her early life, Marion's father was a successful Jonesboro attorney and law partner of former United States Senator Thaddeus Caraway.

Marion was raised in Jonesboro, graduating from Jonesboro High School in 1927. There she fell in love with John Levin Jelks. They had a long courtship interrupted by college and the uncertainties of the Great Depression. They would eventually marry on March 17, 1935. Marion first remembers meeting Levin when they were about 10 years old in her father's chicken yard at their residence on West Jefferson Street. This would have been about the time of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles to formally conclude the hostilities of World War I.

She observed Levin and his friend D. L. Vaden shooting marbles among the fowl. She vividly remembers changing into a clean white dress with red polka dots, a dress that he professed to remember when they became an “item” in high school. After high school, Marion attended Arkansas State University in Jonesboro (then Arkansas Agricultural and Mechanical College - a two year institution) and finished her baccalaureate degree at Ouachita Baptist College, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, graduating in 1931.
Marion and Levin continued to date, biding their time for marriage until the onset of more favorable economic conditions. During this period Marion tried her hand at teaching in Strawberry, Arkansas, remote even by 1930's Arkansas standards.
After their marriage in 1935, Marion and Levin settled in Jonesboro and on Christmas Eve of 1937 their daughter Marilyn was born. Because of his career with National Life and Accident Insurance Company, Levin was transferred several times early in their marriage. The young couple lived in Newport, Arkansas and Memphis through the early war years. On December 16, 1942, a son, William Alden was born. After Levin’s brief Navy hitch during World War II, the couple moved to Greenville, Mississippi. After a promotion in 1947, Levin and Marion moved to Jackson, Mississippi.

It was early in 1948 that Levin was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease which was then virtually 100% fatal. Levin passed away in August 1948.
After Levin's death Marion worked at the Jonesboro Public Library but found the lack of a Library Science degree an impediment to advancement. In the late summer of 1951, in what had to be a traumatic move, Marion uprooted the family and traveled to Norman, Oklahoma where, in 1952, she received her Library Science degree from the University of Oklahoma. While this may sound "ho-hum" by today's standards, Marion's move to another state with two school age children to pursue higher education was no mean feat in those days.

In 1952, Marion was offered a position as Chief of Library Services at the Army-Navy Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Unfortunately, in 1954 the facility was closed as part of the post Korean War military draw down. After a brief stint as librarian at Lakeside High School in Hot Springs, Marion moved her family to Little Rock in 1955 where she was head of the Reference Department at the Little Rock Public Library. She worked there until November 1961 when she married Henry B. Thielman of Jonesboro. Henry was the Assistant Manager of the Arkansas Rice Growers Association (Riceland Rice) mill in Jonesboro. Marion furthered her library career at Arkansas State University heading the project converting the ASU Library's cataloging system from Dewey Decimal to Library of Congress, a Herculean task.

Not fettered by the potential pitfalls of a "blended family" (Henry's son Ronald had finished college as had Marilyn and son Bill was off at college), the couple had an idyllic life. Marion retired in 1973 and Henry in 1975. The couple kept the highways and airways hot with their traveling. This was made more enjoyable by the fact that their three children lived in exotic places; Ron was a Professor of Music in New Mexico, Marilyn lived in south Florida and Bill was a career Air Force Officer whom they visited in Europe and Hawaii. Henry was stricken with a brain tumor in 1980 and passed away in November of that year. For the past thirty years Marion continued to enrich her life by continuing her travels, devouring books by the truckload, protecting her garden from the accursed squirrels and associating with her many friends and interests which include bird watching (thus the squirrel aversion), an almost 50 year membership in the Jonesboro Arts Study Group, the First Christian Church and at age 90 Tai Bo, a martial arts/exercise discipline.
Marion lived a long and remarkable life indeed. She has seen the world transformed from the serenely optimistic days prior to the First World War to today's frenetic existence. She has walked through the door to the third millennium of the Christian era. One hundred years ago when Marion was born is a bygone time; still the "horse and buggy" days prior to aviation and electronic mass media. There were a few men still alive on the day of Marion's birth who in 1815 had marched with or against Napoleon at Waterloo, many who had fought for Texas independence or celebrated Arkansas statehood, both in 1836.

The generation of the Civil War was providing the leadership of the nation and the now departed veterans of the First World War were still in knee pants.
Marion is survived by her son William A Jelks (Lynda), four grandsons, Scott Norris (Linda), William (Demaras), Michael and Andy Jelks; granddaughter Leslie Norris and great grandchildren Sarah and Robbie Norris.

Services will be 10:00 A.M., Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at Emerson Memorial Chapel with Jerry Wilcox officiating and Emerson Funeral Home in charge of arrangements. Burial will follow at Oaklawn Cemetery with William Jelks, Michael Jelks, Andy Jelks, Scott Norris, Craig Venable and Floyd Langston serving as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers are Hugh Harrington, Phyllis Burkett, Dean Rossa, Margaret Smith, and Elaine Freeman.