Marcia Jacqunelia Foreman
May 01, 2012 (Menafn - The Press Democrat - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Marcia Jacqunelia Foreman, who modeled fur coats as a young woman and later ministered to the sick alongside Mother Theresa, died April 25 in Windsor after a stroke. She was 91.
Born in 1920, Foreman endured a hardscrabble upbringing in Depression-era Oakland, but through her Catholic faith persevered to ensure her six children received good educations.
Foreman grew up without a father, and when her mother became mentally ill, she and her three siblings were sent to live in foster homes. With her good looks and eye for fashion, Foreman later modeled in New York and San Francisco for a time before joining the U.S. Army during World War II.
"She was a lovely lady. She was quite beautiful," said her daughter, Melissa Foreman.
After the war, Foreman attended business college and for much of her professional life worked as a secretary. She married Charles Foreman, who worked at Naval Air Station Alameda, and had six children with him.
They later divorced, and she relied on Catholic schools during the ensuing years to help her raise her at-time rebellious brood.
After retiring from her work at a mortuary in Piedmont, Foreman sought to see some of the world, visiting a daughter in New Zealand and in the late 1980s working for three weeks at the home for the dying established in Calcutta by Mother Theresa.
A woman of deep faith, Foreman strongly believed in helping the less fortunate, and for years continued her work with the needy in the Bay Area.
"She was trying to replicate what Jesus did," Melissa Foreman said.
When her ex-husband Charles was dying, she granted him his last wish to have his family back. They remarried in Reno, three days before he died.
Foreman's son Matthew and his wife Cyndi of Santa Rosa brought her up to Sonoma County when she was suffering from dementia. She died in the Terene Manor care facility in Windsor.
She is also survived by children Alicia Torres of Oakland; Rex Foreman of Oakland, Celeste Daviton of Reno and Marla Foreman of Berkeley; as well as eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A viewing will be held today from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Windsor-Healdsburg Mortuary, 9660 Old Redwood Highway, with services Wednesday in Dixon.
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