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My mother, born Marjorie "Marge" Catherine Barnes in 1920, was the second of seven children born to Russell and Olive Barnes of Chicago. She spent some of the winters of her childhood at a second home in Florida. Having graduated high school early (not unusual in those days), she also attended a small college, studying one of the few subjects available to women in those days, homemaking. In high school, she had met and dated Bob Poltevecque. After some time working unfulfilling jobs and enjoying a single life, in 1944 she married Bob and they quickly began a family. Within a few years, she and Bob packed up their things and their three small children (including me) and moved to the booming town of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Bob found work in a bank that he supplemented with music work. Marge helped out by working day jobs when she could, while raising eventually four, and then five, children. When the kids were old enough to care for themselves, she got a job with a software development company, which eventually took her out to California, where she died peacefully in 1983.
