Marlys W. Ferguson

Ferguson Marlys W. - Died in Los Gatos, CA on Wednesday, August 21, 2002 at the age of 87. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1915, Marlys remembered her mother, Jenny Nolander Ryberg, as a brilliant woman and a concert-quality pianist, who died when Marlys was just six years old. Her father, Charles Ryberg, an attorney, was the Reading Clerk for the Minnesota State Legislature and a minister in Alaska during the Gold Rush. Until he remarried, Marlys lived for six years with her aunt and uncle on a farm in Iowa. As a young woman in California she worked for a screenwriter with 20th Century Fox, and met her future husband, Dr. Robert R. Ferguson, at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Robert, a student at Oxford University and a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, was the senior pastor at Fremont Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, CA for 20 years. The couple had three children, Robert, Bruce, and Jane. While at Fremont, Robert was asked to return Princeton Seminary as a staff member but he lived for only one semester, dying at the age of 56 of Lou Gerhig's disease. Marlys remained in Princeton, New Jersey for several years, working as coordinator of educational services at the Princeton University Art Museum. In 1972 she married Dr. George Peters who pastored churches in New York and Wisconsin. Eventually Marlys returned to California, this time obtaining a real estate license. She retired in El Sombroso Oaks in Los Gatos, a retirement community for Presbyterian clergy. She is survived by her son, Robert R. Ferguson, Jr., daughter-in-law, Jane Ferguson, grandsons, Nathan and Adam Ferguson, all of Twain Harte, CA; her daughter, Jane Ferguson of Los Gatos; and her half-sister, Joyce Sieberz, of Minneapolis. Friends and family are invited to attend Memorial Services on Saturday, August 31, at 1:00 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church of Los Gatos, 16575 Shannon Road, Los Gatos, CA. Memorial Contributions may be made to the Bruce Ferguson Memorial Fund for Youth Mission at Fremont Presbyterian Church, Sacramento, CA

Published on August 25, 2002