Margaret M. "Marge" Janssen

Funeral services and Mass of Christian Burial for Margaret “Marge” Janssen, 91, of Davenport, will be 10 a.m. Monday, December 16, 2024 at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Davenport. Burial will be in Mt. Calvary Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 3 until 5 p.m. Sunday at the Halligan-McCabe-DeVries Funeral Home, Davenport with additional visitation Monday at church from 9 until 10 a.m. Memorials may be made to St. Anthony’s Catholic Church. 

Marge passed from this world on December 11, 2024 after a short illness.

Margaret Mary Jane Baldridge was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota on December 13, 1932, the second of two children to Raymond and Kathryn Baldridge. The family moved to Oelwein, Iowa when Marge was two. She graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1950. After graduation, Marge moved to Davenport to attend AIC to learn secretarial skills. She was employed by the Rock Island Arsenal, where a coworker, Marie Darby, introduced her to her brother, Harry Janssen. They fell in love and married on June 28, 1952. They had two children, Joe and Kay. Harry preceded her in death on July 2, 1994.

After her children were school age, Marge worked various temp jobs but took summers off to be with her kids. Her last employment was with Republic Electric where she stayed for 29 years.

Marge’s love of life was deep. Marge loved her family, her parish family, and sharing her spirit with people she cared about, but shared that same spirit with people she just met. She loved holidays because she could celebrate with her family. She loved talking with people and sharing stories and her great sense of humor with them. Marge loved making things for the Parish Bazaar, and she loved being Irish. She participated in many of the St. Patrick’s Day parades. She was a member of the Altar and Rosary Society at the former St. Mary’s Catholic Church and helped with Religious Education. Marge was also a Girl Scout leader and she read to Kindergartners at Monroe School. 

Marge is survived by her loving family, all of whom were the love of her life, her children: Joseph Janssen and Kathleen “Kay” Steele, her grandchildren: Robert Joseph “BJ” Janssen, and Christopher “Chris” Steele and his wife, Lindsay, great-grandchildren: Bradley Kyle Steele, her namesake, Elsie Margaret Steele, her special friend, Robert Berry, and many loving nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, as well as her parents, her brother, Thomas Baldridge, and her sisters-in-law, and brothers-in-law. May their souls rest in peace.