Marlyne Houston
1946 - 2025
It is with the deepest sorrow that the family of Marlyne Houston announce her passing in Taber on Thursday, July 17, 2025 at the age of 79 years.
A celebration of Marlyne’s life was held at the Taber Community Centre Auditorium, 4720 B - 50 Street, Taber on Saturday, September 6, 2025 between 12:00 P.M. and 2:30 P.M. A private burial was held at Mountain View Cemetery, Lethbridge.
Marlyne is survived by her children Robert Mogck (Daman), Bonnie Baceda (Tim) and grandson Kody Baceda (Ashley) and their daughter Remi; sisters Bea Virostek (John), Marion Freimuth and Edna McFall; her husband of five years, David Houston and his children Cayleigh, Carsyn and Dustyn Houston (Taylor) and their children Lamya and Charlotte as well as number of estranged step children. Marlyne is also survived by aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.
She was predeceased by her parents Norman and Martha Kurpjuweit; sister Alethea Wutch; brothers-in-law Mel Wutch, Albert Freimuth and Don Houston; niece Andrea Freimuth; great nephew Devin Saunders as well as many other friends and family including stepdaughter Stephanie Houston who Marlyne unfortunately never had the opportunity to meet.
Marlyne was born in Medicine Hat and resided on the family farm in the Woolchester, Alberta District, where she and her sisters worked like farm hands along side their parents. In her late teens, Marlyne met Ken Mogck and left the family farm to get married and start a family of her own. Marlyne and her twin sister Marion, both wed their husbands on the same day in 1963 in a double wedding. Marlyne and Marion were best friends throughout life and often challenged others to tell them apart, seeing as they were identical twins. Many times, friends would mistake one for the other. The telling feature was always Marlyne’s hand where she was missing the tip of a finger from a farming incident that happened when was only four years old. They would always hold their hands closed when people were trying to guess as Marlyne’s missing fingertip was the definite give away!
After the wedding, Marlyne moved to the Mogck family farm near Walsh, Alberta where they resided until 1967. They moved to Medicine Hat where she started her working career at Hat Hardware. Her two children were born four years apart, and she took much pride in them and helped out in their lives whenever she could. When her grandson Kody was born, she was such a proud, grandmother and adored him as he was her only biological grandchild. She spoiled Kody every chance she could! The two of them were always plotting something together and she would always say, “anything that happens with grandma stays with grandma”! Kody treasured her so much and she was definitely his hero! She was shocked and thrilled when she found out that Kody was going to be a dad and she was so proud to become a great grandmother to Remi. Over the years, Marlyne gained many extended family members and she did her best to get to know and love them all. She was even known as “grandma” to the kids in the day-home that her daughter ran for over a decade. Some of her twin sister’s grandchildren, lovingly called her ‘big grandma”. Marlyne was loved and adored by so many!
Marlyne loved driving so much that she joined the stockcar race club. She enjoyed speeding around the race car track, where she won almost all the races she was in and gathered many trophies in the Women’s Powder Puff Division. She was so good that she ended up racing in the men’s division and beat a lot of them too!
Marlyne’s first marriage lasted ten years and then she moved to Seven Persons and married Bruce Carson. After a few years, their journey took them to Hays. She got a job at Vauxhall Foods and then traded that job in for a job at Rolling Hills Fertilizer running a big TerraGator, spraying fertilizer. After almost a decade of marriage, she figured out that he was not “the one” and they divorced. It was not long after, she met and married one of the kindest souls she’d ever met, Miles Emmerson. Sadly, she lost him to an unfortunate vehicle related accident. She managed her way through the traumatic loss, by working very hard on a water hauling job in the oil patch. Many said she worked harder than some men in those male dominated positions. She was a very strong willed and determined woman who never considered any challenge too difficult! Because of all the hard work that she had done over the years, it had taken a toll on her body, and she had nearly every joint in her body replaced. We called her, our bionic woman. She never fretted about anything and said that worrying about it is not going to change it, she always had a, “is what it is”, “get ‘er done”, no fuss mindset.
Marlyne had a very witty sense of humour that would catch you off guard as she was able to throw one liners in when you least expected it. Whenever she was in the hospital, she would tease the nurses all the time to lighten everyone’s spirits. She was strong willed spitfire and called a spade a spade and wasn’t afraid to say and do exactly what she thought. She loved her short, spiky hair (and made sure that if you didn’t have that style of hair…she let you know it just wasn’t right in her eyes as every one should have short spiky hair, in her opinion). She enjoyed putting colour in her hair to pizzazz it up, all of the time. Purple was her favourite.
Marlyne was an avid curler in the younger years, and then turned to cribbage once she couldn’t curl anymore and throughly enjoyed the camaraderie of tournaments, always aiming to win but was just glad for the fun and companionship. She had many crib partners over the years including, her son and daughter, sisters and many friend. Another sport she really enjoyed watching was rodeo! She loved to go to bed early, but would stay up to watch rodeo any chance she could. She was an amazing cook and enjoyed cooking and would easily look at three different recipes to come up with one masterpiece. Her daughter learned so much from her and treasured the time spent around cooking. Marlyne was determined in her weight loss journey and joined the TOPS club. She was recently awarded for her significant weight loss which was a huge accomplishment that she was very proud of.
After years of strenuous work, Marlyne decided to give up the hard labour jobs and worked as a waitress in the Vauxhall tavern. This is where she met her another kind and gentle soul, Russell Johnson. They married and spent twenty five years together residing on his family farm near Vauxhall until his health deteriorated and he had to be moved into Linden View in Taber. In order to be closer to him, Marlyne decided to make the move into Taber and bought a home there, so she could continue to spend all day, every day visiting and caring for him without the extra driving time each day and did so until his passing in 2017. A few years later, Marlyne met and married David Houston who she navigated through the last years of her life with as they helped and supported one another through their daily lives and through the many health challenges they both faced.
Marlyne had a determined way about her and she was always so good about helping out the underdogs, but would always give them the “what for” if it was needed. She was very caring and compassionate and helped out so many people throughout her life and many people would not be where they are today without her. Her kindness and generosity never went unnoticed and will be fondly remembered forever. Marlyne will be dearly missed by everyone whose lives she touched, so much more than any words can say.
With her son and daughter by her side, Marlyne peacefully passed away in the Taber Health Centre, after a short but difficult battle with aggressive cancer. They would like to thank the many family and friends who spent many hours visiting and supporting, while she was in the hospital. Thanks to Dr. Leishman for her regular care and also to the doctors and staff at the Taber, Lethbridge and Calgary hospitals, who kindly and competently cared for Marlyne in her many hospital stays.
If friends so desire, memorial tributes in Marlyne’s name may be made directly to the Canadian Cancer Society, 200, 325 Manning Road NE, Calgary, Alberta T2E 2P5 www.cancer.ca, Diabetes Canada, Calgary and District Branch, 220, 6223 - 2 Street SE, Calgary, Alberta T2H 1J5 www.diabetes.ca, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta, 100, 119 - 14 Street NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1Z6 www.heartandstroke.com, the Kidney Foundation of Canada, 995 Station Main, Lethbridge, Alberta T1J 4A4 www.kidney.ca or to a charity of ones choice.
