A2
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2019
Octogenarian process server was a local legend
Williams known
for her loyalty,
quick wits
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
Chinook Observer
SURFSIDE, Wash. —
Marjorie Williams, the tiny,
pistol-packing 83-year-old
process server who died in
January , was known for her
loyalty, her quick wits and
the legendary grit that, on one
occasion, led her to pull a gun
on a man who was abusing
his girlfriend, and on another,
helped her fi nd a missing
woman.
A long time stalwart of the
local legal community, Wil-
liams, who died on Jan. 4 after
a decade long illness, was
said to possess an intuition so
acute that some believed she
had a sixth sense.
“She was larger than life
by anyone’s estimation,” her
friend Laurie Buchanan said.
Originally from Nebraska,
Williams and her hus-
band, Jim Williams, moved
to Ocean Park in the early
1980s.
After following them to
the p eninsula, one of the cou-
ple’s three sons started work-
ing as a process server —
someone who delivers legal
documents for attorneys.
Eventually, Jim, previously a
long-haul trucker, took over
the process-serving busi-
ness. In the early days, Mar-
jorie would help him. After
Jim died in 2009, she started
working alone.
Process serving can be
dangerous because it involves
delivering bad news, often
to people with messy lives.
Servers deliver eviction
notices, summonses, divorce
papers, restraining orders and
subpoenas.
As a result, they have to
fend off aggressive dogs,
endure insults and threats and
visit wife-beaters, child-abus-
ers and drug dealers. Some
have even been killed on the
job.
Williams put up with a lot
of verbal abuse but avoided
more serious incidents, her
friend Colleen Smith said.
However, she did fi nd her-
self in some very strange sit-
uations. While trying to serve
papers in Naselle one blus-
tery day, “She got bit on
the butt by a goose,” Smith
recalled.
Don’t get shot by
the messenger
Williams didn’t take any
chances — she got herself a
concealed weapons permit.
“She packed her gun like
she needed to,” Superior
‘MARGIE WAS A REALLY POWERFUL
INDIVIDUAL. SHE WIELDED A
LOT OF POSITIVE ENERGY. SHE
NEVER GAVE UP FOR ANYTHING.’
Laurie Buchanan
Court Clerk Virginia Leach
said. Williams never had to
pull her gun while serving
papers, but she was fully pre-
pared to use it.
Once, she saw a man beat-
ing on his girlfriend on the
side of the road, Williams’
daughter-in-law,
Diane
Sorensen, of Ocean Park,
said. She stopped the car, got
out and drew her pistol. With
it squarely trained on the
shirtless man, she called the
woman over to her car.
“She said a few choice
words to the gentleman. He
told her he was gonna kill
her. Mom says, ‘I don’t think
you’ll make it,’” Sorensen
said. “She loved telling that
story.”
Attorney Nathan Need-
ham, of Guy Glenn Law
Firm, which regularly hired
Williams for about 15 years,
heard a slightly different ver-
sion of the story.
“He began to threaten
Marjorie. That was proba-
bly the wrong thing to do,”
Needham said, laughing.
FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TONIGHT
WEDNESDAY
Cloudy with occasional
rain
Intervals of clouds and
sunshine
ALMANAC
Salem
45/55
Newport
49/54
New
Eugene
44/53
First
Feb 4
Full
Feb 12
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
TOMORROW'S TIDES
Astoria / Port Docks
Time
8:52 a.m.
9:30 p.m.
Low
2.2 ft.
-1.1 ft.
Baker
28/44
Ontario
28/43
Klamath Falls
23/47
Today
Lo
40
19
31
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11
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Olympia
Pendleton
Portland
Roseburg
Salem
Seaside
Spokane
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Yakima
Hi
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Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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APPLIANCE
AND HOME
FURNISHINGS
YE TSOP
C LA NTY
C OU
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Human
Services Advisory Council, 4
to 5:30 p.m., 800 Exchange St.,
Room 430.
Astoria Library Board,
5:30 p.m., Flag Room, 450 10th
St.
Warrenton City Commission,
6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main
Ave.
Seaside Airport Advisory
Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Astoria City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
WEDNESDAY
Astoria Parks Advisory
Board, 6:45 a.m., City Hall,
Monday’s Megabucks: 5-18-
24-26-36-40
Estimated jackpot: $7.2
million
WASHINGTON
Monday’s Daily Game: 3-4-2
Monday’s Hit 5: 10-14-21-
22-35
1095 Duane St.
Clatsop County Board of
Commissioners, 6 p.m., Judge
Guy Boyington Building, 857
Commercial St., Astoria.
Warrenton-Hammond
School Board, 6 p.m., special
session, Warrenton High
School library, 1700 S. Main
Ave.
Estimated jackpot: $100,000
Monday’s Keno: 02-06-09-17-
18-19-23-26-33-39-42-45-47-
48-55-56-71-76-77-79
Monday’s Lotto: 10-16-18-
26-44-45
Estimated jackpot: $3.3 million
Monday’s Match 4: 04-17-
18-21
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MEMORIAL
OREGON
Monday’s Pick 4:
1 p.m.: 0-1-8-6
4 p.m.: 0-0-2-5
7 p.m.: 9-1-7-4
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Monday’s Lucky Lines: 4-5-
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Estimated jackpot: $24,000
APPLIANCE
3 A 0 RS
ing under the infl uence
of intoxicants. His blood
alcohol content was 0.09
percent.
LOTTERIES
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy,
sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries,
sn-snow, i-ice.
Over
Washington, was arrested
by Warrenton police at the
Fred Meyer in Warren-
ton and charged with driv-
Lakeview
22/42
Ashland
34/52
Hi
37
42
53
49
53
42
48
46
50
53
Raymond and South Beach
are still most at risk for
fl ooding in Washington
state. For the North Coast,
fl ooding risk remains high
along Fraser Road in Tilla-
mook County.
The coastal fl ood advi-
sory has been in effect
since Saturday.
Jan. 22, 2019
CADE, Edmund Ross, 88, of Gearhart, died in Gearhart. Hughes-Ransom Mortuary &
Crematory in Seaside is in charge of the arrangements.
REGIONAL CITIES
City
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Eugene
Ilwaco
Klamath Falls
Medford
Newberg
Newport
North Bend
to a combination of ele-
vated river levels and high
astronomical tides, accord-
ing to the National Weather
Service. Low-lying roads
could close due to high
water.
Bays and sloughs, U.S.
Highway 6 and U.S. High-
way 101 and the towns of
DEATH
Burns
25/43
TOMORROW'S NATIONAL WEATHER
NATIONAL CITIES
Hi
46
28
34
31
31
29
54
-1
84
39
41
54
66
50
75
51
71
29
52
29
44
30
59
48
34
DUII
• At 4:25 p.m. on Mon-
day, Edward John Oster-
man, 48, of Long Beach,
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Tonight's Sky: The Little Dipper stands in the north
tonight and every night. The star at the tip of its
handle is Polaris, the north star.
The Daily Astorian
ON THE RECORD
La Grande
34/46
Roseburg
40/48
Brookings
44/54
Feb 19
John Day
37/46
Bend
36/51
Medford
32/52
UNDER THE SKY
High
8.9 ft.
10.0 ft.
Prineville
36/52
Lebanon
45/53
A sixth sense
Despite her tough per-
sona, Williams was a deeply
empathetic, spiritual per-
son, her loved ones said.
Leach, the no-nonsense court
clerk, is one of many people
who believed Williams had
unique talents.
“If she stood there and
held your hand, she could
see things. She could tell you
things,” Leach said. “She did
that often. Or she’d make
phone calls and say, ‘Hey,
beware of this.’”
Colleen Smith remem-
bered how word of Williams’
apparent gifts spread around
town.
People who believed they
were dealing with unwanted
spiritual presences — or just
tough personal dilemmas —
sought her out.
“It was something she
didn’t need to proclaim.
She didn’t want people to
think she was crazy,” Smith
said. “She would never take
money, but people kept com-
ing and asking.”
Partly out of necessity,
partly out of love for her
work and partly out of sheer
stubbornness,
Williams
worked regularly through 10
years of sometimes debilitat-
ing illness.
Even as she lived out her
fi nal few days in the hospi-
tal, she called upon friends
to help serve the last of her
papers.
“Margie was a really pow-
erful individual,” Buchanan
said. “She wielded a lot of
positive energy. She never
gave up for anything.”
Coastal fl ood advisory remains in effect
A coastal fl ood advisory
remains in effect for the
North Coast and southwest
Washington until 4 p.m.
today.
Coastal and inland
fl ooding is expected in
low-elevation areas due
Partial sunshine
Pendleton
39/53
The Dalles
38/55
Portland
45/55
Sunset tonight ........................... 5:05 p.m.
Sunrise Wednesday .................... 7:48 a.m. Coos Bay
Moonrise today .......................... 7:20 p.m. 47/54
Moonset today ............................ 9:04 a.m.
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Des Moines
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Honolulu
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Memphis
Miami
Nashville
New Orleans
New York
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, DC
Sun and some clouds
Tillamook
49/53
SUN AND MOON
Time
3:11 a.m.
2:38 p.m.
55
38
Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs.
ASTORIA
49/54
Precipitation
Monday ............................................ 0.03"
Month to date ................................... 3.82"
Normal month to date ....................... 7.21"
Year to date ...................................... 3.82"
Normal year to date .......................... 7.21"
Jan 27
SATURDAY
53
37
REGIONAL WEATHER
Astoria through Monday.
Temperatures
High/low ....................................... 51°/34°
Normal high/low ........................... 50°/38°
Record high ............................ 61° in 1981
Record low ............................. 14° in 1962
Last
FRIDAY
52
40
49
Breezy with periods
of rain
THURSDAY
54
41
“She said, ‘I have a gun and
I’m not afraid to use it.’ He
said, ‘Do you even know
how to shoot that thing?’ She
replied, ‘Do you want me
to shoot you in the chest, or
should I aim lower?’”
Williams backed up her
tough words with action,
friends said. About 15 years
ago, she began volunteering
at the Ocean Park Food Bank,
which her friend, Mickey
Schmale, was running.
“We had a volunteer that
couldn’t keep his hands in his
pockets,” Schmale remem-
bered. The female volunteers
were fed up, but Schmale
was unsure if she could dis-
cipline a volunteer.
“She said she’d handle
it. The next thing I knew,
he was walking across the
parking lot and getting in
his car,” Schmale said. “She
said, ‘Don’t ever let any-
body tell you you can’t fi re a
volunteer!’”
While Williams gener-
ally tried to be gracious while
serving papers, according to
her friends, she also enjoyed
the thrill of the chase.
“She was tenacious, and
for those that didn’t want to
answer the door, she would
hang out and wait,” attorney
Guy Glenn said.
That tenacity helped her
solve a missing persons case
in late 2017.
A devoted member of
the Eagles Auxiliary, Wil-
liams was part of a tight-knit
group of lady Eagles who
called themselves “The Wid-
ows’ Group.” Sheriff’s depu-
ties, friends and Eagles spent
hours searching the p enin-
sula when one of the widows,
Audrey Davis, vanished after
going to the grocery store.
After a week of fruitless
searching, Williams began to
suspect Davis had vanished
closer to home. One morning,
she noticed a wooded lot, set
well back from the road near
Davis’ home. There was a
“no trespassing” sign, but she
drove right past it. She found
Davis, who had died of nat-
ural causes after getting lost.
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