This week marks the passing of two members of our extended “family” — devoted farmer and family man Jerry Plett, husband of longtime feature writer Rowena Plett, and energetic Marion Historical Museum director Teresa Mills, with whose assistance our weekly Memories in Focus column has been produced.

Jerry finally lost a long battle with deteriorating health on his 84th birthday Monday. He was a regular in the newspaper office, nearly always joining Rowena for lunch and once a month offering a letter to the editor that often spoke with a powerful voice that belied his soft-spoken nature in conservation.

To Jerry, farming wasn’t just a job or even a way of life. It was a calling to serve society. A strident supporter of traditional values and healthful skeptic of government overreach, he treated us to letters that expressed viewpoints many others hold but few were willing to voice publicly.

Teresa, taken at too young an age, succumbed after a short battle with a sudden illness. Although not a trained curator, she brought a missing element of energy and enthusiasm for the past to the museum.

With a very sparse budget, she was continually upgrading and organizing its archives. But her most important contribution was the excitement and vitality she could impart to each museum visitor, young or old.

Both will be sincerely missed.

— ERIC MEYER