Marie Stires died as she lived on Dec. 8, 2002, on her own terms, shortly after a wonderful family Thanksgiving in Denver, CO. Her ashes will be interred and an informal memorial service will be held at Punchbowl National Cemetery on Friday, December 30, 2005 at 3:00pm.

All those who knew Marie, who worked and fought for peace and justice with her, are invited to attend.

By age 14 she was deeply involved in live theater in NYC and met actors such as Sidney Poitier. At 18 she sang in her strong soprano voice at her high school graduation in St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC.

Though well on her way to an acting career when Pearl Harbor was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941, Marie dropped everything to join the US Army. There in Sacramento, Calif. in l944 she married the dashing and brilliant Captain Frederick Hand Stires.

Marie was always proud of her service to this country, training the men before they went off to the war. Her greatest disappointment and shame in her country came with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

When she became pregnant with her eldest child, she was required to resign from the Army just as she was due for a promotion to Captain; a high school graduate who was a voracious reader always hungering for more knowledge and information.

She was a devoted Army wife and shepherded her family through many moves, making homes in such places as Palo Alto, CA; Washington, D.C.; Tokyo, Japan; Miami, FL; Guadalajara, Mex. and finally, Honolulu, HI.

She had a flair for color and design and immediately turned any new residence into a home. In 1959 a divorce, from the one true love of her life, left her a single mother of 3 children under the age of 12.  A true adventurer, she set off for parts unknown, Hawaii, to start a new life.

From her first landing to leaving Hawaii 42 years later, her heart and soul belonged here. Immediately, she threw her energies into her new home. She was part of the innovative "all girl" radio station, KNDI, in 1960. She loved the Hawaiian entertainment and music scene. Years later she appeared as the matriarch in the play "The Royal Family".

But first and foremost championing the underdog and righting social injustice were her greatest passions.

Marie A. Stires.  Just the utterance of her name could strike fear in the hearts of those charged with doing the people's business.  She believed that democracy meant government for the people and by the people, and she acted on that belief. Never afraid to "speak truth to power", whenever Marie perceived injustice of any kind, she spoke out and when she spoke, people listened.

As one of the earliest members of the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center she worked tirelessly for racial justice.

In the mid l960's,  Marie, a Kuhio Park Terrace ("the projects") resident herself, convinced the government to install speed bumps in the surrounding parking lots to make it safer for the children. A long time delegate to the National Housing Law Project, she advocated for fair and affordable housing for those in need.

Though she was not a lawyer, in 1979, the Legal Aid and Defender program awarded her the Liberty Bell Award for her commitment.  One of her favorite organizations was Habitat for Humanity. 

Early on, she was a peace activist against the Vietnam war.  She opened her heart and home to our armed services men and women. She ran an unofficial R & R spot on the beach in Laie for all who wished to have a sense of home and family while they were away from their own.

Marie helped lead the successful effort to save Sand Island from developers in the Save Our Surf (SOS) campaign.

Always an ardent supporter of  Native Hawaiian Rights she was named an honorary member of Ka la hui.

When her failing health dictated that she no longer live on her own in her beloved Hawaii, and with all of her family on the mainland, she relocated to Denver, CO in May, 2001. Within a month she had met the Governor of Colorado and pronounced him "a nice man for a Republican".

Devastated by the Sept. 11, 2001 bombings of the World Trade Center buildings in her homeland, NYC, she knew immediately that New Yorkers would rise above the disaster, come together, survive and thrive.  And she was right!

Marie's legacy lives on in her three children: Leslie Carol Marcum, of San Diego, CA; Frederick "Rick" Hand Stires, II, of Flagstaff, AZ; and Claire Anne Fish Mootz, of Denver, CO; and her grandchildren, Gregory Ryan Fish, of Atlanta, GA; Robert Carder, of Las Vegas, NV; and Jessica Courtney Stires, and Nicole Marie Stires, AZ. Proud to be part of her family are daughter and son in-law, Nancy Stires, AZ and Chris Harrison Mootz, CO, and granddaughter in-law, Lara Glasser Carder, AZ, as well as her hanai family, the Wilson's: Cecily Capelouto of Kahuku, Sean of Honolulu, Kealoha of the Big Island and Liana Petranek and Brahim Aoude of Haula, and Claudia Wallace of CA.

* Marie's daughter, Claire Mootz, added the following recollections of the family's time living in Kaaawa.

We did live in Kaaawa for about a year and a half. We lived in the little white house on the corner of Kam Highway right across the street from the Fire Station. She knew the DeLimas and the Geigers and even helped the firemen save the life of a young women who tried to commit suicide in Kaaawa.

That is when we met Faith Clarke Wilson and her kids, Cecily, Sean and Kealoha. Mom and Faith immediately hit it off as the only two haole single mothers on the windward side, both of whom had grown up in the East, and both very intelligent, involved women. I was in the 10th grade so that would be l961 to 62. My brother Rick went to Kaaawa Elem 3rd and 4th or 4th and 5th grades, I think. Leslie went to Saint Ann's in Kaneohe with Cecily.

We moved around alot, we also lived on the back road in a big colonial style white house next to the Entendencias and we lived in a cinderblock house on the Hwy north of the park. Mom worked at the Crouching Lion Gift Shop for a while and it was her and Faith's favorite stomping grounds. They were friends with George Chaplin (the editor of the Advertiser, I think).

Mom also got us all involved in a big clean-up day at Kahana Bay in the early sixties, and got all of us kids, Leslie, Rick and I and the Wilsons to do the great sixty mile hike that President JF Kennedy wanted us all to do to show how fit we were (1963).

We also lived in at least three houses in Laie. All tolled we were on the windward side for 4 years. And after I graduated from Kahuku, 1964, Mom even lived in Kaneohe for a short time and she was flooded out in '65, on my birthday, May 1st. (We evacuated to Castle HS.)