Remembering Marge Gilbert

‘Our Mom Cared About the Kids in the Neighborhood As If They Were Her Own.’

By Kathleen Gilbert-Macmillan
and Kent Gilbert

96 years. A grand life for us to celebrate. Our mom has 123 years between the two of us at being our mother. She helped us feel young because she was always young at heart and loved being around young people.

She refused to divulge her age until she was 90 and then she bragged about it. She loved birthdays, hers, ours and our children’s. On Kent’s last birthday she made his favorite cinnamon meringue torte. Kathleen always had a new birthday dress handmade by Mom, who was an excellent seamstress. In her seventies, our mom, keeping it a complete secret, made her way entirely on her own to Menlo Park, CA, by airplane, bus and walking, to surprise Kathleen on her birthday.

Our mom cared about the kids in the neighborhood as if they were her own. If a neighbor child was having a problem, our mom would call his teacher, invite him over to her house to talk about it, and even ask us to help with his homework and show him how to play the piano. And of course she baked birthday cakes for most all of the children on our street for many years. (She herself did not much care for cake but she loved chocolate mousse.)

Our mom was so very proud of us. She bragged to all those would listen, and to those who probably cared not to listen, about our accomplishments. About Kent she would talk so very proudly as to what a wonderful, devoted father and provider he is to his and Beth’s four children, of his great accomplishments, and how he could be counted on when anyone needed him. She also said Kent could not have found a better wife: Beth is sunshine for all of our family. She helped take care of our mom with great cheer, planted flowers for her, filled her birdfeeder, looked at volumes of old photo albums of our mom’s history and drew forth her stories, fed her, bathed her, and loved her devotedly.

Our mom was very proud of Kathleen’s education, activism and wonderful family. She loved spending time with Kathleen, Stuart and their two children. Our mom would make sure that if anyone needed an immigration attorney, they should call Kathleen. She loved and admired Kathleen’s husband, Stuart, and was so grateful that he was her second son. During the last couple of years she stayed with Kathleen and Stuart several days a week, always interrogating each one about the details of their lives and gently smiling when their dog would choose to lie at her feet for hours at a time.

Our mom remembered everything about everybody, what happened when and where, and, if anyone needed to know anything, she had the answer or would find out. “How can I get my neighbor not to park his car on the lawn?” “How are we going to stop those jet planes from flying over Park Hill?” “How would I get a reverse mortgage so I can get some more money for food?” “What can we do to make 33rd and Holly St. better for the neighborhood?” And best of all, “Tell me the history of Park Hill.”

Our mom and dad were a team, Iowa farm kids, who met in Colorado and loved to ballroom dance to big band music. When we were little, they would take us to their friends’ house where we played with the other kids outside and they took dance lessons in the rec room.

Nothing was more important to our parents than us. They wanted us to have better lives than they did – they grew up during the Great Depression and were young adults during WWII, our dad a soldier in the war – and they wanted us to have strong families and be great parents.

We remember always having breakfast and dinner together as kids, meals filled with conversations about our day, current events, civil rights, and what current problem our mom was trying to solve to make our community the best it could be.

Our mom would be so happy and so honored that all of you are here today to celebrate her long life and all that she has accomplished to make Park Hill one of the nation’s great neighborhoods – and no doubt she hopes, and would insist as only Marge can – that all of us continue to take action to help people, erase injustice and make our neighborhoods, larger communities, our nation and the world a better place.

Editor’s Note: Marjorie “Marge” Gilbert, who worked tirelessly for decades to make Park Hill a vibrant and integrated neighborhood, died on Sept. 21 at her Park Hill home. Her daughter Kathleen and son Kent wrote this tribute to their mother, read during the celebration of her life on Sept. 26. Additional remembrances appeared in the October issue of the GPHN.

A Lifetime of Giving Back

Marge Gilbert was a community activist before anyone thought to use that description.

✴ Gilbert was on the Board of GPHC off and on for decades.

✴ On the Airport Committee she helped lead the fight to close down Stapleton Airport an effort to protect Park Hill from the roaring of jetliners overhead.

✴ She was the go-to resource for the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the School Desegregation Lawsuit.

✴ She was the recipient of the Babbs Award in 1983

✴ For Greater Park Hill Community, Inc, Gilbert was the Blockworker Coordinator from the inception of the Park Hill News – which later became the Greater Park Hill Newspaper. In the early days, she was the editor for a time.

✴ Gilbert held the record – 40 years – for being the longest volunteer newspaper deliverer.

✴ She was an active participant in the Denver Inter- Neighborhood Cooperation until age 95

✴ She was on the board of directors of the Northeast Denver Housing Center until this year – at 96 years old.

✴ She was deeply involved in the Holly Area Redevelopment Project. She was 90 years old when the Urban Land Conservancy acquired the site and 91 when HARP was launched. She advocated ceaselessly for a children’s theater in the area.

✴ While her children were growing up, she was nearly always an officer, including president, of the Parent Teacher Association, and ever present school volunteer.

✴ She was a paid part-time staff member at the Denver Election Commission in 2008. She was quite proud, and surprised, about bringing home a paycheck at age 90.

✴ Until almost age 96 she was an active participant in Taking Neighborhood Health to Heart.

✴ She was a member of the Northeast Park Hill Coalition, and strong advocate for GREATER Park Hill, working diligently to include the neighborhoods north of MLK Boulevard.

— Compiled by Kathleen Gilbert-Macmillan