Marjorie E. (Allen) Sanderson went to be with her Lord on Mar. 24, 2005. She was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on June 28, 1921, to Dr. Frank E. Allen and Mary Ellen (Dodds) Allen. Her father was a minister and author. She had one sister, Mary Grace, who married Dr. Wyley Caskey in 1937.

Marjorie lived in Winona Lake, Ind., for a year while Dr. Allen lectured in various places. They moved to Hopkinton, Iowa, in 1927, where she went to grade school and high school. She attended Lenox Junior College from 1938-40 and then taught grades 2, 3, and 4 in that town from 1940-1943.

Marjorie attended the State University of Iowa at Iowa City from 1943-1945, receiving a B.A. in home economics. During summer months, she worked at a teacher’s agency for placement of teachers in the Chicago loop. She also went to White Lake Camp during those summers. In August 1945, she was hired to teach junior high home economics in Waukegan, Ill. At the White Lake church camp, however, she heard God’s call to go to Latakia, Syria, to teach in the RP church mission school and was accepted by the mission board.

After getting a passport, Marjorie sailed for Syria on Oct. 11, 1945, on the USS Gripsholm. Having engine trouble, they docked in Palermo, Italy, were transferred to the battleship, General Meigs, and sailed for Egypt. Then, she sailed for Beirut, Lebanon, on a Turkish freighter. Rev. Herbert Hays met her, and they went on to Latakia to start a new life teaching English and Bible. The Rev. C. T. Hutcheson family took her into their home for two years, and she soon made many friends in Latakia of the students and young people. Soon, Miss Eunice McClurkin and Rev. Tom Semple (from Ireland) came to teach also.

On Feb. 2, 1948, Kenneth Sanderson joined the teaching staff at the Boys School in Latakia. The four young teachers became better acquainted, and on June 2, 1948, Kenneth asked Marjorie to be his wife and be career missionaries in Latakia. After accepting his proposal, she came back to the States for a three-month furlough. During that time, she was with relatives and meeting members of Kenneth’s family for the first time: his parents, and two sisters, Esther Mitchel and children (Marjorie, Jean, Paul, and Robert) and Marjorie Edyth. She arrived back in Syria in September 1948 and they were married by Rev. Hays on Oct. 30, 1948.

Many friends were made during those years with Syrian young people. Special friends were Helen and Florence Fattal. The Syrian government began to turn against the Americans, and so Kenneth and Marjorie left in August 1958, returning to the U.S. via Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and the British Isles. They were back only a year when the Foreign Mission Board asked them to go to Nicosia, Cyprus, to teach: they were there from 1959-1975. They were also in Larnaca, Cyprus, a short time.

Upon coming back to the States, Kenneth became administrator of the RP Home for two years and assistant administrator until 1986, and Marjorie was food service director at the Home for some of that time. In retirement, they toured the U.S. and enjoyed entertaining at their home. They were not blessed with children of their own but were a godly influence to nieces, nephews, and many other young people. By using the computer, the couple kept in touch with this large number. They moved to the RP Home in 1998. Kenneth went to his heavenly home on Mar. 10, 2004.

Marjorie wrote a history of mission work in Syria, entitled A Syrian Mosaic. Hundreds of former students have been blessed by Kenneth and Marjorie’s correspondence, encouragement, prayers, visits, and hospitality. A motto in Marjorie’s Bible was based on 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Be steadfast, immovable, at all times abounding in the Lord’s service, aware that your labor in the Lord is not futile.”

— Margorie Russell (Kenneth’s niece)