Eglantine Lucy (Marsh) Ford

Eglantine Lucy Marsh Ford, died peacefully at home on Saturday, November 29, 2014.  

She was born in Brooklyn, NY, on November 22, 1913, the eldest of the five children of Clinton Gage and May Amelia (Lamy) Marsh.  

At the age of seven years, the family moved to Michigan, where she grew up, mainly in the Grand Rapids area.  She graduated from Grand Rapids South High School in 1931, in what became known as "The President's Class" since it was also President Gerald Ford's graduating class. In 1939, she married Harold A. Ford (no relation to the president) who predeceased her in 1993.  

She is survived by her only sister, Frances Marsh Cox, of Grand Haven, Michigan, and seven of her children: Edwin Leroy, Virginia May (Bennett), Alice-Marie Ford, JoeAnn Elizabeth (Newsome), Harry Alan, Rosemary Marsh (Noel), and Frances Lamy (Rosenberg, and more than 100 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren.  Also surviving are many beloved nieces and nephews and grand-nieces and grand-nephews. She was well loved by all who knew her, especially her church family of St. Benedict's Episcopal Church, Plantation, Florida, who knew her as "Mama".  

She was a member of the Mayflower Society, was an avid reader, traveler (traveling to Alaska in her 100th year to fly around the glaciers and volcanoes with her great-grandson piloting ) and painter. She also loved riding her tricycle in her neighborhood up until about three weeks before her death. She will be profoundly missed by her family and friends.  

Services will be January 10, 2015, at 12:00 noon, at Sts. Andrew and Matthias Church in Hastings, Michigan, with burial in Grand Rapids, next to her husband. 

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Eglantine Lucy (Marsh) Ford, please visit our floral store.