Marjorie "Marge" Dabling | Brigham Young University | 1942

"Page Pioneer" Marjorie Esther (Dabling) Doland, and FIRST WOMAN MAYOR of Page, Arizona, looks out over the Navajo Generating Station near Page from several stories up during a visit she made there in 1977.

Marjorie's bio (continued):

Marge and her family moved to Page in 1957 when the town was in its infancy.

When construction of Glen Canyon Dam was complete, Marjorie and Jack had to decide what their future would be. Their only child, Mike Doland, PHS '66, was in high school and they didn't want to move him again, so they decided to open a business. At that time, Zontelli Mining from Minnesota was operating a copper mine on the Navajo Reservation at a trading post called Copper Mine. Jack was hired to be their accountant, and they wanted an office in town, so the Dolands rented a small store in the shopping center for their office. Because they had the space and location, they also started an office supply store. Soon after that, Zontelli went out of business, so they concentrated on the store, and Jack got several accounting jobs with local businesses. Marjorie also found work with the Bureau of Reclamation as the local librarian. When the local jewelry store closed, they bought their souvenir inventory. This meant they needed more space, so they moved into a larger store location. They kept adding to the store inventory until they were selling office supplies, greeting cards, costume jewelry, Indian jewelry, souvenirs, and a very nice gift line at Doland's, 810 N. Navajo Drive. They were also running the local Mesa Theatre three nights a week. They got into that business by accident -- the theater had had a fire in the projection room some years before, and the owner had gone bankrupt. The insurance company holding the lien on the theater hired a local upholstery business to redo the theater seats, and he told Jack about it.* Jack contacted the insurance company, and they leased the theater to the Dolands. Marjorie kept the theater for several years after Jack's death, and the store for a few more years. Then she went to work for local businesses. After closing the store, she worked for Page Guidance Center (a behavior health center) as office manager, for Del Webb at Wahweap Marina, Lake Powell in personnel, Lake Powell Medical Center as Administrative Assistant (purchasing of all medical supplies and writing grants for Federal funding). She was then hired by the National Park Service in Page and worked for them for ten years in several departments, but mainly in Visitor Protection (law enforcement). Marjorie loved every minute of it and, finally, at the age of 80, she retired in 1999. During the early years, she also worked for the local Justice of the Peace. At one time there was a double murder at a local tavern. She was called in to do the court reporting during the investigation (she could do shorthand at a high speed and had no trouble keeping up with the testimonies. She also took the notes during the autopsies.)

*I went to school with Mike and worked for Jack and Margie at the theatre for some time. I cried as I read about the local upholstery outfit ~ that was "PARTNERS OF PAGE" -- Al & Beth Partner…my parents. It was our family who scrubbed, cleaned and scoured the interior of the theatre. My dad was the upholster..a master of art his whole life doing furniture and antiques. Amazing, touching tribute and to the "Pioneers of Page" as well. Sincerely, Sybil Dean Partner Carrillo '67

Marjorie had lived, helped build, and loved Page for 50 years. Her involvement in Page was varied. She served on the Advisory Council for the Bureau of Reclamation until Page incorporated. She was appointed to the newly formed local government by the Coconino Board of Supervisors and served as Vice Mayor. Two years later, in mid-1977, she was elected Mayor by 4-3 of city council and served two years. Two years after the city of Page became incorporated, the political climate was unsettled. In the wake of that tumult, Marjorie was elected as the city's first woman mayor, providing a calm that Lake Powell Chronicle publisher Jim Stubbs characterized by writing, "...it was as if the community had been given a tranquilizer. Marge brought something new and fresh to the office. She was her own person; she wasn't overly impressed with her position and did want to do a job for the people. She took a firmer hold on things at city hall." Marge served as mayor from 1977-1979. "She set the bricks and mortar as to what Page was going to be," said current Mayor Bill Diak. "She was a doer and a rear get 'er done type of person."

Marjorie was active with the Arizona League of Cities and Towns and the Northern Arizona Council of Governments (five northern counties in the State) executive board and chaired the Transportation Committee. She made several trips to Washington, D.C. in connection with these positions and met with a number of congressmen and senators, etc. She also served on the executive board of the behavioral center in Flagstaff, Hospital Board, Chamber of Commerce Board, chaired "Make Page Green" project for Page Women's Club, Powell Museum Board and President (she and Jack had helped found the museum many years before), Homemaker's Club, president of local bowling league, chaired CHRISTmas parade, etc.

She spent all of her time helping to build Page into the beautiful city it is today. She spent many hours in meetings, committees and volunteering, as well as running two businesses. She was very active in her church and her Beta Sigma Phi sorority. She received the national ATHENA Award for Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year, which honors businesswomen for their excellence in business and leadership, exemplary community service and their support and mentorship of other women. The women honored are very deserving finalists who not only excel in their careers, but make an incredible mark on the community where they live. Marge also worked on the Page electric utilities prior to the establishment of Page Electric Utility.

Marjorie said that two of her key accomplishments in Page were the creation of Golliard and the children's parks.

Marjorie's son, Mike and Theresa, moved to Missouri when he retired. It took two years to convince Marjorie to move there with them. She missed Page and her friends. If she wasn't working, you could always find her outside in her wonderful gardens, reading or doing hand work. Marjorie loved her family, her church, and her friends.

On a personal note from Theresa: I knew Marge almost 40 years. She was the hardest working woman I have ever known. The most fun she had was shopping and walking around Wal-Mart for three to four hours. Mike and I had to sit down and rest while she kept on going. Marge loved all of you; she sent out hundreds of Christmas cards and never missed a birthday, so if you didn't get one it was by mistake. She loved NASCAR, and her favorite driver was Jeff Gordon. She told me stories of living on the farm in Idaho and all the travels she had and places she had seen. She loved it when her parents moved to Page. Ray and Lora were like my own grandparents, and we spent a lot of time together. We all missed them so much when they were gone. There can never be enough said about Marjorie, as she was one of a kind. Even a book wouldn't cover all that she had done in her life. On a final note, she would have liked to see Mitt Romney become President. Goodbye, Marge. We all miss you every day.

"Page Pioneer" Marjorie Doland, who helped to birth "America's Last Frontier" -- Page, Arizona, arriving there in 1957 with her husband and only child. Marjorie was elected Page's first woman mayor in mid-1977, providing a calm -- "It was as if the community had been given a tranquilizer," wrote Lake Powell Chronicle publisher Jim Stubbs.

Marjorie Esther Dabling was born June 13, 1920, at her grandfather's home in Provo, Utah, to Ray Dabling, born September 7, 1895; died May 5, 1990; and Lora Creer Dabling, born June 18, 1899; died July 7, 1988 in Page, where they had moved in the 1970s. Marjorie had two brothers: Bruce Ray (Helen Craven "Shapey") Dabling and Richard LaSalle "Dick" Dabling & Mrs. Dick (Elaine Gaisford) Dabling. Marjorie's parents moved from Salt Lake City to Page in the early 1970's. The Dolands bought them a double-wide mobile home at 12 Thunderbird, and her dad worked for them at the theater. He also had a big yard to maintain and loved it. Before this, Marjorie's father worked many different jobs, including helping to lay the freeway between St. George and Las Vegas. Her mom made friends with her neighbors and with church members. They took many trips together and shared many good times. Her mom knew the Chicago Cubs players by name and their batting averages. The Caribou County Sun, Soda Springs, Idaho, reported two visits of Marjorie's parents with her, Jack and Mike in Page:
"1/3/1957 - Having moved from their ranch home in Idaho into the Sanders Apartments in Bancroft, met their daughter and grandson's plane in Salt Lake City on Sunday."
"12/31/1959 - Spent CHRISTmas in Page with their daughter's family -- Mr. & Mrs. Jack (Marjorie) Doland and their son, Michael."
"5/26/1966 - The Dablings, of Murray, Utah, former residents of Lund, Idaho, (the location of Lora Creer Dabling's father's ranch, where Marjorie spent summers) left to visit their daughter's family and attend their grandson, Mike Doland's, Page High School graduation exercises."

Marjorie, Jack & Mike moved to Page in 1957, first living in the trailer park. They lived at 342 Cedar Street from at least 1974-1980. Marge sold that house and moved into a mobile home on the other side of Page (on Grandview?)

Marjorie passed away in Springfield, Missouri on August 9, 2012, at age 92, at the nursing home in Maranatha Village Senior Living, moving there from her apartment, also in Maranatha, six weeks before she died, due to an infection in her leg and cellulitis. In 2008, she lived with Mike & Theresa for a year, then to a temporary apartment, before discovering her better apartment in Maranatha Village. Marjorie and her parents are buried in Provo City Cemetery, Utah. Besides her son's survivors, Marjorie was survived by her brother, Dr. Bruce R. Dabling of Ogden, Utah, many nieces and nephews and many, many friends. She was predeceased by her younger brother, Dick.

Marjorie accomplished many things in her lifetime. She graduated from BYU, majoring in business, with a double major in Marketing and Secretarial training and a double minor in Accounting and Economics. She belonged to Phi Chi Theta, an honorary national business sorority and was president her senior year. After graduation, her first job was with the Morton Salt Company, but a better offer was made to her with contractors building the Kearns Army Air Base (Camp Kearns), near Salt Lake City, Utah. They had offices at the base in Kearns. Her brother, Bruce, was in the Army at that time and stationed at Kearns. CAMP KEARNS HISTORY

She met her future husband in Salt Lake when she was assigned to work for him. She didn't like him at first and would call the supervisor for the office help and ask to be assigned to someone else, but she was assured that Jack was very nice and she would get to like him. When work was nearing completion in Salt Lake, Jack was transferred to a new job in Auburn, Washington, and Marjorie put up such a fuss, they transferred her also. They were there one winter and got engaged at a fancy night club in Seattle. She went back to Provo the first of June, 1944, and they were married at the home of her parents on June 13, 1944, with only family members present. Both of her brothers were in the service (Dick in Europe and Bruce in Texas) and were not present.

Their life after that was a series of moves from one construction job to another. Their first home was in Needles, California; then to Los Angeles; Fairfield, California; Yuma; Boise; San Francisco; Needles again; Nebraska City; Grand Forks, Canada; Albuquerque; and many other places. They lived in whatever was available during war time, from hotel rooms, converted garages, houses, apartments, trailers, etc.

They moved to Massachussetts in 1954 and bought a home in Bedford. Because of Jack's position, they met a number of famous people and enjoyed many privileges. One of those was a stay at a lodge at a lake in New Hampshire where Mike went fishing every day with the owner's son. Another perk was having box seats at Red Sox baseball games, Celtic basketball games, and hockey games.

In 1957, they moved to Phoenix, bought a home on 7th Avenue and Northern and a business. Jack read in the paper about the construction of Glen Canyon Dam and the project manager who was a friend of theirs from New York City. Jack drove to Page to visit with Herb Booth, and Herb convinced him to come to Page and work for him. Mike and Marjorie stayed in Phoenix until they sold their home and found a manager for their business, then they joined Jack in Page.

Marjorie wrote that Page was very primitive in 1957 - no houses, only barracks, mess hall, trailers, and one metal building that held all the businesses - grocery store, post office, bank, service station, beauty shop, barber shop. Electricity for the town came from a generator in a vacant lot near their street, and water was hauled in from Copper Mine on the Navajo Reservation. Jack's office was on the other side of the Colorado River, and he had to walk a foot bridge strung across the gorge, 700 feet above the river. About once a week, they went to Flagstaff for a weekend so they could buy magazines, watch TV, and buy things they could not get in Page. They took a large cardboard box with them, and on their way out of Flagstaff, they would stop on a country lane and fill the box with good black soil to take back to Page and put in their planter boxes.