Martha T. McGinnis

Martha T. McGinnis passed away on Saturday, June 20, 2015, after a lengthy struggle with dementia/Alzheimer’s Disease. 

Born Martha Eloise Tolman on June 23, 1927 in Columbus, Nebraska, she spent her very early years growing up a farm girl on the Tolman family farm in Silver Creek, Nebraska. During the depression years of the 1930’s, her family moved to several different small towns in western Nebraska and Martha graduated from Hay Springs High School.

She attended both Colorado Women’s College in Denver and the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. After graduation she moved to Colorado where she taught school, including a year as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse on the Colorado plains near Limon.

She met the love of her life, Harry P. McGinnis, when they were both working at a restaurant in Denver. She and Harry married on June 1, 1952, and started their family with the birth of their son, Bruce, the following year. Daughter Wendy was born in 1963. Martha was a devoted wife and mother. She raised her family at first in the newly built suburb of Thornton and later in Lakewood, Colorado. She loved working with children and went back to work in education as an elementary media specialist at Stukey Elementary in the mid-1970s. Later she joined her husband, Harry, at Colorado Academy where she was a receptionist until they retired together. She was a loving and attentive grandmother when her first grandchild, Leorah was born in 1992. Martha was an avid gardener and enjoyed home decorating and travel with her husband and family throughout the U.S.A. Martha loved music, especially Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra, and she played piano and drums in her younger years. As a longtime member of the Presbyterian Church, she served in many capacities, from kindergarten teacher to deacon.

Martha was kind and generous and much loved by her family and many friends. She was preceded in death by her loving husband and is survived by son, Bruce A. McGinnis (Debbie), daughter Wendy J. McGinnis (Lisa) and granddaughters Leorah, Samantha and Kimberly.

A memorial celebration of her life will be held at a future time as yet to be determined.

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