TEASTER – Marion Luther Teaster, 91, a good man, departed this life on Thursday morning, July 28, 2011 at the Community Hospice Morris Center in Jacksonville, FL. He was born in Benton, Mississippi on December 1, 1919, the fourth of five sons born to William Joseph and Maude Pilgrim Teaster. He grew into manhood farming cotton fields his family worked as share croppers. He loved sports and hunting, traits that served him well as a U. S. Army Combat Infantryman in the World War II Solomon and Philippine Islands Campaigns. Mobilized with the 31st Division on the eve of WW II, he trained at Camp Blanding, FL. There he met Mary Mozelle Marshall and married her on April 20, 1942, shortly before his departure for the South Pacific. Prior to shipping out, he was posted to the 43rd Division.
With war’s end the couple returned to Jacksonville to pursue dreams of most Depression Era children of steady employment and a home free of hunger and poverty. He served for 33 years as an employee of the St. Regis Paper Company Mill in Jacksonville, FL and retired in 1983. He built the home the couple strove for in 1964 on Dames Point and moved it to Yulee, FL when the Jacksonville Port Authority acquired the property. He passed on his honesty, loyalty and gentle kindness to his children and his love of hunting to his sons. His devotion to family was a constant throughout his life. He was possessed of a Southerner’s connection to the soil and was a lifelong gardener.
He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Mary M. Teaster; his daughter, Tammi Teaster Lovell; and two sons, Martin Glenn Teaster and Marshall Wayne Teaster, all of Yulee. He is also survived by nine grandchildren, nine great grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents; his brothers, Harvey, Durwood, Lloyd and Robert (Shorty), all of Mississippi; his son in law, John Robert Lovell, Sr. and his grandson, John Robert Lovell, Jr.
He was a quiet, modest Christian man who remained devoted to the love of his life until the very end. His absence is mitigated only by the knowledge that the parting is temporary. We are all diminished by his passing.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, August 3, at Blackrock Baptist Church in Yulee. Interment with Military Honors will follow in Green Pine Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m. Tuesday at Green Pine Funeral Home.