Marjorie L. Berglund

Marjorie L. Thompson Berglund, 85 of Aledo, died Thursday at the Mercer County Nursing Home. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday at 10:00 AM at St. Catherine’s Catholic Church. Burial will be in Aledo Cemetery. Visitation will be held on Monday from 4 to 8 PM at Speer Funeral Home with a Rosary recited at 7:30 PM. Memorials may be made to the William Dennison Chapter of NSDAR; Mercer Carnegie Library or St. Catherine’s Church. Marge was born August 19, 1923, at the Thompson farm near Alexis, Illinois, to Rodney C. and Ethel Small Thompson. She and her younger sister, Jo, lived primarily in Aledo, Illinois. She attended the Aledo public schools and graduated from Aledo High School in the top ten percent of her class in 1941. She attended Burlington Junior College. During World War II, she worked at the Iowa Ordnance Plant in Burlington, Iowa, the Savannah Health Clinic in Georgia, as well as for the U.S. Department of Interior at the Bureau of Reclamation in Denver, Colorado. After the war, she returned to Aledo and began dating the love of her life, Aubrey “Poke” Berglund, also an Aledo native who had just returned from serving in the U.S. Navy in the war. They married August 25, 1946 at St. Catherine’s Rectory. Marge was very active in her community and St. Catherine’s Catholic Church, and was a devoted wife and mother. She was an officer and member of St. Catherine’s Altar and Rosary Society; member of the Columbian Club; served on the county election board for 35 years; member of the William Dennison chapter of the N.S.D.A.R.; charter member of the Greasepaint Guild; charter member of the Mercer County Quilters’ Guild; served as pastoral assistant at St. Catherine’s Rectory for many years; and real estate saleswoman for Ford and Maynard Agency. Marge frequently helped wait on customers at her husband’s store, Berglund Cleaners. Her special love was the Mercer County Library where she served on the library board for 36 years. Before retiring from the Western Illinois Library System board, she served as president. Marge enjoyed frequent bridge club parties; swimming (she once swam across the Mississippi at Keithsburg!); bicycling; played tennis competitively, winning several tournaments; and never met an antique she didn’t like! Marge made countless friends throughout her life and could strike up a conversation with anyone. She used to say, “People just come up and talk to me.” Surviving are her children, Victoria Berglund and her husband Steven Wilmeth, Longview, Texas; Thomas Berglund and his wife, Kris Ward Berglund, Aledo, Illinois. She is also survived by five granddaughters, Catherine Wilmeth and husband, Keith Taylor, of Somerset, England; Jennifer Wilmeth and her husband, Ashley Keller, Chicago, Illinois; Melissa Wilmeth and husband, Ehsan Iraniparast, of Boston, Massachusetts; Joanna Berglund of Iowa City, Iowa, and Eryka Berglund of Aledo. Marge is also survived by two great-granddaughters, Olivia Keller, of Chicago; and Chloe Taylor, of England. She was preceded in death by her husband of 42 years, Aubrey “Poke” Berglund, her sister, Jo Thompson, and her parents, Ethel and Rodney Thompson.