Marjorie (Baby Doll) Cecelia Van Vacter, b. 1930

Marjorie (Baby Doll) was the sixth child of Oren and Vivian Van Vacter. She was born March 14, 1930.  She, and Robert who followed, were the only children of the eleven siblings born in a hospital.  When Majorie was born her mother Vivian named her Naomi Margie Van Vacter, and she was entered in the Cradle Roll of the Patee Park Baptist Sunday School as Naomi on the second day of May 1930.  The original Cradle Roll Certificate that is in the files of Majorie C. (Van Vacter) Slagle, was signed by Mrs. Fred Kirschner, Superintendent of Cradle Roll and Minister Robert E. Emole.  Soon after, Majorie's father Oren, not pleased with the name, went to the Department of Health for Buchanan County, Missouri, and had the name of the birth certificate changed to Marjorie Cecelia and her original given name was dropped from the records.

Very early in her childhood Marjorie was given chores around the house, the most of which were her responsibility until she left home at age 16 when she married. She helped with the dishes, cooking, washing, ironing, churning butter, the many jobs required in the garden and sometimes hauling water.  Marjorie welcomed the time she could get out of the house and work for wages.  In her early teens she held several jobs.  When she was working she assisted financially by giving her mother half of her wages up to the first twenty dollars.  All earnings after that was hers.  Other of her siblings that followed assisted financially while living at home and working by applying the same formula. 

On November 27, 1946, Marjorie married Wilbur E. Mason, of Maysville, Missouri; she was sixteen years old. At the time of her marriage she was working at the Chase Candy Company where she worked until February 1949. When she left Chase she went to work at Whitaker Cable Company and continued on there until May of 1952. At that time her husband Wilbur was in the Air Force and was attending a school in Denver, Colorado.  He was there for four months. Majorie left St. Joseph and joined her husband in Denver.  While in Denver she worked at an electrical parts factory.

After Denver Wilbur was sent to Mt. Clemens, Michigan and then to Belville, Illinois and to San Antonio, Texas and then to Alaska. Majorie worked in a pottery factory in Mt. Clemens, a sewing factory in Belville and a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio.  When Wilbur went to Alaska Majorie went back to Mt. Clemens, Michigan and to her old job in the pottery factory. She was there for about four months and then joined her husband in Anchorage, Alaska. She first worked on the Air Force Base, then a dry cleaner and finally at a Chinese Restaurant.  They left Alaska in early 1956, traveling to Seattle, Washington by boat.  They were there for two weeks while Wilbur was being discharged from the Air Force.  From there they went to California to visit her Mom, Dad and family that had moved from St. Joseph, Missouri to Highland, California (adjoining San Bernardino, California).  When they left Alaska Marjorie was pregnant, after ten years of marriage, with her first and only child with Wilbur. They went back to Mt. Clemens, Michigan after a stop for a visit in St, Joseph, Missouri. 

Their son Greg was born on November 8, 1956, in Mt. Clemens and five months later Wilbur was transferred to Huntsville, Alabama.  In 1962 she separated from Wilbur and moved back to St. Joseph, Missouri.  She continued her work ethics of always having a job outside the home.  Majorie was very industrious and accepted holding a job as one of the requirements of being a productive citizen.

She met and soon thereafter ( June 8, 1963) married Vilas Eugene Slagle and in her words "the love of my life."  After that Majorie's primary duty became homemaker.  The records show that she gave birth to three more children, Lisa, Vilas, II and Stacey.  The marriage lasted until Vilas, I death.  There are so many things Majorie has been involved in in her life.  It would take an entire book instead of the few paragraphs of this bio to tell the story of this hard working dedicated wife, mother, grandmother , great-grandmother, sister and friend.