Marvel Arlene (Stanfield) Hull went to be with her Lord on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, at the Rooks County Health Center at the age of 94.
She was born on August 13, 1924 to Edgar and Rosetta (Smith) Stanfield on their family farm southwest of Alton, Kansas. She was the youngest of five children. Marvel’s first year of school, she attended the Union 76 country school 1 ¼ miles northwest of their farm. Her parents lost their farm during the Great Depression, and moved into Alton. She attended the Alton’s schools, and graduated with the class of 1942 as Valedictorian. After graduation, she attended Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina for a year, then opted to go to work. She worked as a bookkeeper at the Farmers Union Elevator in Alton before moving to Lincoln, Nebraska to work at the General Electric Plant where they manufactured telegraphs and telephones for the military during World War II. She was an inspector on the telegraph assembly line.
After the war, she was united in marriage to the love of her life, Laurence Hull, on August 22, 1946. Together they attended Fort Hays Kansas State College, and graduated in January of 1950 with a degree in Voice.
Marvel was born into a musical family, who spent many evenings gathered around the piano singing together. She sang in public for the first time when she was four years old, with her sister, Mildred. That was followed throughout her grown-up years by often being called upon to sing solos at the church, school, and other community functions such as weddings and funerals. In college, she began singing the contralto solos in Oratorios, most often “The Messiah”, in cities around Kansas, and continued doing that for several years after college.
Her first love musically, however, was singing duets with her beloved Laurence, which they did for many of the seventy years they spent together.
Laurence and Marvel moved to their present home north of Woodston in 1957. Marvel taught at the Ash Rock country school for two years before their first child, Elizabeth, was born. She then opted to be the “stay at home” mom. She mothered two more children, Cynthia and Downer. In 1977, when she realized they would have three children in college at the same time, so she went to work as a bookkeeper at J-J Oil Co. in Woodston, where she retired from in 1989.
Marvel loved to read, work on crossword puzzles, crochet, and cook for her family. She was a member of the Woodston United Methodist Church, and taught Sunday School there for many years.
Left to cherish Marvel’s memory are her children, Elizabeth Marcotte of Kansas City, MO, and Downer Hull of Woodston, KS; son-in-law, Dan Sarian of Littleton, CO; grandchildren, Tabitha Kohl and husband Alec of Overland Park, KS, Laurissa Marcotte of Westminister, CO; Haley Sarian of Kirkland, WA, Colton Hull of Manhattan, KS, Kyle Hull of Hays, KS, Jace Hull of Woodston, KS; and numerous nieces and nephews.
She is preceded in death by her husband Laurence, her parents Edgar and Rosetta Stanfield, daughter Cynthia Sarian, son-in-law Ron Marcotte, and siblings, Wayne Stanfield, Forrest Stanfield, and Mildred Sherbondy.
Marvel received Jesus into her heart when she was nine years old, and has lived her life loving, trusting, and being guided by Him. Those left behind miss her terribly, but we can be comforted in the knowledge that today she is with Jesus and with all those cherished ones before her. Her unwavering faith, love, and devotion were a great example to us all, and they live on in our hearts.
A funeral service will be held on Monday April 15, 2019 at 10:30 A.M. at the United Methodist Church in Woodston, Kansas. Interment will follow at the Spring Branch Cemetery in Woodston. Visitation will be held at the funeral home on Sunday 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Memorials are suggested to the Woodston United Methodist Church or the Rooks County Health Center and may be sent in care of Plumer-Overlease Funeral Home, 723 N. 1st, Stockton, KS 67669.
