Marie Northup, 92 passed away Friday, November 30, 2018 in Sterling. Visitation will be held from 1-6 pm, Friday, December 7 at Chaney-Reager Funeral Home with family receiving friends from 4-6 pm. A funeral service is scheduled for 10:30 am, Saturday, December 8 at the Berean Church in Sterling with Pastor Dan Holsten officiating. Interment will follow at Raymer Cemetery in New Raymer.

Marie Northup, known as Marie, was born on October 22, 1926 to John Henry Baumgartner and Hilda Julia Connolly at Eben Ezer in Brush, Colorado. She then grew up on a farm and ranch Southeast of Briggsdale, Colorado. Her Dad was a German immigrant who came to the US from Russia. He came to Brush where relatives lived who had sponsored him. She attended Blair K-8 one-room school house where she walked 4 miles to school each way. After graduating from Buckingham High school, she attended 1 year of college and was then allowed to teach under an emergency teaching certificate at Midway which was another one-room school house on the plains north of Briggsdale. Marie taught there for 2 years.

She met the love of her life, Homer Northup, at a dance in Buckingham and was married on May 23, 1948. After they were married, and after recovering from some severe war injuries, he suffered while serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, they settled on a farm South of New Raymer bought by his war salary and poker winnings.  They had three children. While in New Raymer, they attended the Evangelical Free Church there.  In 1956, they bought another farm and built a house where they then lived until Homer retired in 1995. In 1994, they bought a home in Brush, Colorado and moved a year later.  While there, they attended the Snyder Bible Church in Snyder, Colorado.  Homer passed away in 1996, a couple weeks before his 82 ^nd birthday.  Marie continued to live there until 2016 where she then moved to Devonshire Acres in Sterling.  While in Sterling, she had been attending the Berean Church along with some of her children.

Among the more notable things that happened in her life, while growing up, at some point, her Dad stored beans in the bedroom and had chickens, ducks and geese in the kitchen, burned cow chips for the central heat, made dresses from gunny sacks, and used an outhouse. Her mother died when she was four and was raised by her Dad and her Grandmother. She was bitten by a rattle snake when she was 13 and spent several days in the hospital. She was strongly impacted by the economic hard times of the 1930's while growing up on a farm with very little. "If you need it, get it, if you don't need it, don't get it" became her byline as we were growing up.

Once married, she was a member of the Thimble Club and all her children were active in the community's 4-H Club. Marie and Homer sponsored many different foreign exchange students including students from Columbia, Brazil, Germany, and Switzerland. She also had nephews and nieces which stayed the summer on the farm while they were growing up. Marie and Homer loved playing cards and were members of the Cherry Lot Club, the Pinochle Club, the 500 Club, and Pitch. Marie loved watching birds and took great joy in sharing that with her neighbor, Nancy Erickson.

She was very artistic including crochet, china and doll painting. She started a ceramics business in partnership with a neighbor and their daughter continues it to this day.  While on the farm, Marie was the primary accountant for the farm. She loved to entertain friends and family, take Sunday drives, had a beautiful yard, and a large garden. When they retired, she loved to travel. In all this, her faith in God remained strong and worked to pass this on to future generations. Her family life was built around her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well as the nieces and nephews.

She is survived by her 3 children, Gayle (Northup) Esarey, Del Northup and Jo Dell (Littlefield) Northup, Gary Northup and Melanie (Schwabe) Northup, 8 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren along with several nieces and nephews. Those that have already passed include here sister, Irene (Winters)(Wells), and her brother, Milton Baumgartner, her mother and father and her son-in-law, Kenneth Esarey.  She was the last of that generation for both the Northup and Baumgartner sides.

She was a large part of our lives and will be sorely missed.

Memorials may be made to the Caring Fund of the Berean Church or the Raymer Feeders and Friend Benefit Fund in care of Chaney-Reager Funeral Home, PO Box 1046, Sterling, CO 80751.