Margie was born in Los Angeles in 1946. She worked at TML during the summers between 1964-1967. She attended and graduated from UCLA. During the academic year of 1965-66 she attended school in Bordeaux, France. From there she made many trips seeing much of Europe from Russia to Portugal. She graduated from UCLA in 1967. She completed her M.A. in French in 1969. She also earned a teaching credential and taught ESL at Huntington Park High School and Adult Ed classes at L. A. High.
Margie met Sam Oman in the winter of 1966. She and Sam were married in 1968. Sam finished his Ph. D. at UCLA in 1975. They then moved to Cleveland and Margie got a part time teaching position.
The following letter of recommendation speaks to Margie's qualities as an English teacher:
Date: May 21, 1975
To: The administrator who wants a superb E S L teacher
She has been teaching E S L Level 3 of a 6 level program at this school for this complete school year. We are disappointed to see her leave as she has had strong attendance throughout the year and does a very fine job of teaching - and those are two separate items.
We had also hired her for a summer class and for the 1975-1976 school year; however, she insists on going to Cleveland with her husband.
But she is welcome back whenever the Omans return to California.
Best wishes,
D. Gum
E S L Department Chairman"
"Los Angeles Community Adult School
From: The administrator who is losing one
Subject: Mrs. Marjorie Oman
In 1973 their daughter Ruth was born and in 1976 their son David was born.
In 1978 the family moved to Israel. Margie taught French and English. When Sam was on sabbatical, teaching summer school or attending a conference they would come back to California. Together they traveled to many places including China, Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, England, Scotland, Mexico, Peru (Machu Picchu) and Ecuador which included the Galapagos Islands. Margie attended English teachers conferences in Malta and India. Sam says, "Although Israel doesn't quite compare with Yosemite as far as mountains go, we would regularly take hikes throughout Israel and explore different parts of Jerusalem."
Margie and Sam have two grandsons, Yuval and Gilad, and one granddaughter, Hila, the children of their daughter Ruth and her husband Asaf. Their son David just recently got married to Tali."
Margie passed away on 10 November 2010 and in Sam's words, "after a stubborn, courageous eight-year battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)."
Those of us who worked at TML with Margie remember her as a wonderful person to be around. She was easy to make laugh and have a great time with. She was a tireless hiker and hiked many places with Anne Healy Field. One very memorable hike was when a group of us hiked to the top of Mt. Hoffman. Because of scheduling difficulties it was not easy for several people to all get the same days off. One summer Margie, Anne, Gene and another TML worker, Fred all wanted to have three days off to hike together in the area to the south of Mt. Coness. Martha worked it out so we could all have the same days off. We drove up the Saw Mill creek road and found a place to camp. We then sat in the car the entire afternoon while it poured rain and there was lightening and thunder for hours. It finally let up long enough to cook our dinner over an open fire. We put four potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil in the coals and when we guessed they were done we could only find three. Of course it rained the next day and the next day and we were only able to take very short hikes between downpours. It was a great three days off for us.
After returning from France one evening around the dinner table Margie told the story of being on the ship crossing the Atlantic and after a large satisfying meal she patted her stomach and announced in French to the other passengers at the table, "I am pregnant!" What she really thought was that she was saying was, "I am full." but she used the wrong verb form and its meaning was that she was pregnant. The French speaking people at the table got a good laugh out of that.
The Yosemite pictures below were taken when Margie was young and healthy; the others were taken after she became ill. Note that she's smiling in all of them.
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Margie & her brother Ed Horowitz in Yosemite. | Anne Field, Jancy & Margie at Tuolumne Lodge. |
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Sam & Margie. | Fred Mandel, Margie & Anne |
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| Left to Right: David, Ruth holding Gilad, Asaf, Sam and Margie. |
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| Left to Right: Asaf holding Gilad, Ruth holding Hila, Yuval, Margie, David, Tali and Sam beside Margie. |
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| Margie with Hila. |
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Yuval and Margie | Left to Right: David, Sam with Gilad, Margie |
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| On a picnic in the Jerusalem hills. Left to Right: Sam's mother, Hannah, Margie and Sam. |
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