{"id":202935,"date":"2018-03-05T17:59:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T07:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=202935"},"modified":"2020-08-06T13:56:11","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T03:56:11","slug":"obituary-desley-marquardt-1934-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/03\/05\/obituary-desley-marquardt-1934-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Obituary: Desley Marquardt 1934-2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Colin and Desley Marquardt on their wedding day (Photo: Marquardt family)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

March 5, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost a hundred people spilled out into the grounds of the St John Trinity Lutheran Church in Wondai on Friday morning as the church overflowed for the funeral of well-known local resident Lorraine (Desley) Marquardt.<\/p>\n

Desley, 83, died on February 21 at Orana Nursing Home in Kingaroy.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/h2>\n

This is an extract from the eulogy read on\u00a0 Friday:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Desley was born\u00a0in Annerley\u00a0on November 25, 1934 to\u00a0Charles August and Irene May Dabelstein (nee Beckmann).<\/p>\n

Mother and child were not well, so Desley was baptised on the way home from hospital at the Methodist Manse on December 6, 1934.<\/p>\n

A lot of people may be surprised to know that\u00a0Desley\u2019s\u00a0first name was Lorraine. Apparently, an aunty said her given name was “ridiculous” and\u00a0called her\u00a0Desley\u00a0instead. Somehow, the name stuck.<\/p>\n

Over the years, this caused a lot of confusion, particularly when Desley \u2013 who was also known as Des \u2013 was in hospital or in formal situations and referred to as Lorraine. Everyone would look blank for a minute, including Desley!<\/p>\n

Charles was a teacher,\u00a0and took\u00a0Desley to school with him\u00a0at East Brisbane State School.<\/p>\n

She often spoke of how during the war years, the school became an army camp, and the East Brisbane children shared their school with students\u00a0from\u00a0Buranda\u00a0State School.\u00a0One school went in the morning and the other attended\u00a0in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

She had fond memories of that school, despite the war, mainly because it was located next to the ‘Gabba.\u00a0 At lunch time,\u00a0the students were allowed to go upstairs and watch the cricket\u00a0from the verandah. She said they had the best seats in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Desley\u00a0often\u00a0reminisced about growing up in\u00a0Yeerongpilly, where she regularly visited\u00a0the Chinese market gardens, hosted\u00a0visiting US soldiers\u00a0during WWII, and had\u00a0to take cover in air raid shelters if sirens blared.<\/p>\n

After the war, her father transferred to Moorooka State School\u00a0where she finished her education.<\/p>\n

Desley said her father never made allowances for her at school \u2013 in fact it was the opposite!\u00a0 She was often in trouble while he turned a blind eye to other students\u2019 transgressions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles\u00a0was strict at home too. Every Sunday, the family\u00a0walked to church. If\u00a0Desley, her brother Neville, and their\u00a0sister Evelyn had been good, they were treated to an ice-cream on the way home. But if one of them had fidgeted,\u00a0even once, he\u2019d walk straight past the shop, much to their disappointment.<\/p>\n

At home, Desley had to sleep on the verandah, which was freezing in winter and hot in summer. Her brother Neville was given the bedroom, as the only son and eldest in the family, and her parents felt sorry for Evelyn, as she was the youngest.<\/p>\n

One day during the war, a rifle\u00a0shell came through\u00a0the window\u00a0and landed next to her.<\/p>\n

Desley\u2019s\u00a0faith was strong even as a\u00a0youngster. She went to Sunday school and youth group at Nazareth Lutheran Church,\u00a0Woolloongabba.<\/p>\n

She finished school at the tender age of\u00a014 and went out to work.<\/p>\n

She excelled at her job as a seamstress at Cherie Lingerie in Queen Street and was skilled at making upmarket lingerie by hand for well-to-do society women of Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Desley also\u00a0taught Sunday School for nine years,\u00a0and loved\u00a0sharing God\u2019s Word\u00a0with\u00a0the\u00a0children. She always longed to be a teacher but women were not encouraged to have an education in those days.<\/p>\n

She met the love of her life, Colin Leonard Marquardt, in 1954, at a Lutheran youth convention at Murgon where she was a delegate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

She was\u00a0billeted to Colin\u2019s family home at Chelmsford, and the attraction was immediate (at least on Colin\u2019s part!).<\/p>\n

He often made the five-hour trip to Brisbane on a Friday to surprise Desley after work, where he\u2019d park in Queen Street, and take her for milkshakes at\u00a0the\u00a0Shingle Inn.<\/p>\n

Colin was a popular guitarist and country and western singer\u00a0back then, and\u00a0during concerts\u00a0often slipped in the song \u2018Beautiful Brown Eyes\u2019 which was their special song, and a message that he was thinking of her.<\/p>\n

The couple married on\u00a0 August 16, 1958, at the Nazareth Lutheran Church.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Desley\u2019s Sunday School students presented her with a plaque containing the text from Proverbs 3:6: “In all thy words acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” Desley wrote that this text became a part of her, and took pride of place on her bedroom wall.<\/p>\n

That afternoon the happy couple went for wedding photos at the Colonial Mutual Building. All went well until they tried to leave for the reception and\u00a0the bridal party found the exit covered by a steel grille which had been padlocked.<\/p>\n

Apparently the caretaker had gone for a beer or three and forgotten to return!<\/p>\n

Desley and Colin eventually made it to their reception and ended up on the front page of the next day’s Sunday Mail. The headline read: “Trapped \u2013 What A Thing\u00a0To Happen On Your Wedding Day”\u00a0 and the story featured a photo of the couple peering through the locked gate.<\/p>\n

The news turned the pair into mini-celebrities. In nearly every town they drove through on their way to their honeymoon destination of Cairns, passers-by asked if they\u00a0were the bride and groom\u00a0from the paper!<\/p>\n

Colin moved from the family farm to Wondai to start his married life with Des, but it didn\u2019t always\u00a0go smoothly.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The change from\u00a0the city to the country was a huge shock for Desley, who missed her beloved family desperately.<\/p>\n

She wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe early days were very hard.\u00a0 When we got home from our honeymoon, I was taken under the house by Colin\u2019s mother Alice and\u00a0shown a box with four legs. It was full of\u00a0wet\u00a0sand. I was told I would have to manage with that to keep my milk and butter until we could afford a refrigerator.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When friends found out, they loaned\u00a0the couple an ice chest,\u00a0for\u00a0which Desley was very grateful.<\/p>\n

The young bride used to help Colin by sorting the mail\u00a0which he delivered with the cream run. She later learned to drive Colin\u2019s\u00a0Bedford truck in the\u00a0paddock while he loaded hay, bags of grain and peanuts.\u00a0Once, the former city girl\u00a0was shocked to see a snake poke its head out of a bale of hay!<\/p>\n

When the children\u00a0Leanne,\u00a0 Darren, Stuart,\u00a0and\u00a0Bronwyn came along, Desley had to walk herself into hospital to give birth, as men were not allowed in the delivery rooms in those days.<\/p>\n

She often told of being briskly instructed to do her hair and make-up to\u00a0\u201cmake herself look decent\u201d\u00a0before her husband came to visit her and meet each baby!<\/p>\n

She also\u00a0gave birth to a stillborn baby. This loss gave her much sadness, yet\u00a0was something she was told to “just get over”.\u00a0She endured a lot of grief for this child, because counselling was not given and stillborn babies were not acknowledged\u00a0at that time.<\/p>\n

Desley handled most of the child care, as Colin was busy with\u00a0his\u00a0work and public life, being a Wondai Shire\u00a0Councillor\u00a0for 18\u00a0years prior to amalgamation, and also volunteering for the Wondai Lutheran Church\u00a0and other community groups.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

She was\u00a0ahead of her time, ensuring her\u00a0children not only had the opportunity to play sport, but were exposed to the arts,\u00a0organising music and art lessons, and\u00a0even taking them to the city to see the ballet, theatre and musicals. This was rare for country children\u00a0in those years.<\/p>\n

She was proud of obtaining her driver\u2019s license after the\u00a0children came along, and this also gave her much-needed independence.<\/p>\n

Desley\u00a0took the children to and from school, medical appointments, after-school activities, and continued to help Colin with deliveries.<\/p>\n

Each morning started with a hot cooked meal, and the children often came home to find freshly baked biscuits or cake still warm from the oven. When some of the kids had allergies, Desley learned to make rye bread and flat bread from scratch, often sourcing the ingredients during trips to the city.<\/p>\n

There was a hot family lunch every Sunday after church, and often the local Pastor and family or friends who were on their own were invited too.\u00a0Leanne and Bronwyn learned to cook at her side, standing on chairs beside her until they were tall enough to reach the table.<\/p>\n

Desley was a talented cake decorator,\u00a0and always ensured the kids had a special cake\u00a0and their\u00a0favourite\u00a0meals\u00a0for\u00a0birthdays.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She\u00a0religiously\u00a0made cakes and puddings for Christmas, sewed many of the\u00a0children\u2019s clothes, and\u00a0lovingly\u00a0knitted jumpers for her grand-children and\u00a0great\u00a0grand-children for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

Every summer holidays, no matter how busy the year had been, Desley ensured the family enjoyed a holiday at the beach, just as she had enjoyed as a child.\u00a0She also did\u00a0the packing for the trips\u00a0\u2013 including making sandwiches\u00a0and home-made snacks\u00a0for a stop along the way \u2013 and\u00a0unpacked\u00a0when they arrived home.<\/p>\n

She often talked of\u00a0happy times\u00a0fishing with her brother Neville along the Noosa River at Tewantin, which was a tradition she continued with her children during holidays on the Sunshine Coast, also insisting on stopping for prawns and crabs to eat by the beach.<\/p>\n

Desley often said that being with the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren was better than any medicine or pill.<\/p>\n

One thing\u00a0Des\u2019s\u00a0children always admired was how seriously she\u00a0took\u00a0her marriage vows. She\u00a0never removed her wedding ring.<\/p>\n

She and Colin would have been married 60 years this August, and despite her jokes, she stood by him no matter what, and always wanted him by her side.<\/p>\n

They downsized from their family home to Colin\u2019s former parents\u2019 home in Wondai in\u00a02002.\u00a0\u00a0She remained there until poor health forced Desley to move into\u00a0Orana\u00a0Nursing Home 14 months ago.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

She fought leukemia and dementia with the same fierce determination with which she lived her life. And she loved her family until the end.<\/p>\n

Her faith gave her much\u00a0comfort, especially in her final days when she communicated that she wanted her Pastor to visit\u00a0her.<\/p>\n

Prayers soothed her\u00a0when little else did.<\/p>\n

Her granddaughter Susan was reading passages from the Bible to Desley when she finally closed her eyes and left this earth.<\/p>\n

Her family drew\u00a0solace that\u00a0Desley\u00a0knew she was going to her\u00a0Heavenly\u00a0Home and is no longer suffering pain but is at peace.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago,\u00a0Desley\u00a0was very lucid, and\u00a0dictated instructions to\u00a0Bronwyn which she wanted to\u00a0be read to family and friends.<\/p>\n

They were\u00a0basically:<\/p>\n

“Comfort to the Marquardt family of Wondai.<\/em>\u00a0 Hope they will take care of the family.<\/em> Hope the friends and family will help the Marquardt family.<\/em> The old ones and the young ones need to help each other.<\/em>\u00a0 I hope they look after one another in really bad times and even when it all settles down.<\/em>\u00a0 I hope everything works out for all my children. That goes for Colin, too.\u00a0<\/em> Give them love.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Desley is survived by her husband Colin; children Leanne, Darren, Stuart and Bronwyn; son-in-law Owen,\u00a0daughter-in-laws\u00a0Belinda and Wendy; grandchildren Susan, Robert, Mark, Thomas, Reuben, Phoebe, Tate, Chase, Harmonie; and great-grandchildren Jack, Connor, Elliana, Toby, William, and Baby B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost a hundred people spilled out into the grounds of the St John Trinity Lutheran Church in Wondai on Friday morning as the church overflowed for the funeral of well-known local resident Lorraine (Desley) Marquardt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":270429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26],"yoast_head":"\nObituary: Desley Marquardt 1934-2018 - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Almost a hundred people spilled out into the grounds of the St John Trinity Lutheran Church in Wondai on Friday morning as the church overflowed for the funeral of well-known local resident Lorraine (Desley) Marquardt.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/03\/05\/obituary-desley-marquardt-1934-2018\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obituary: Desley Marquardt 1934-2018 - 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