Marcia Rocksund, 80

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, grandmother, and great grandmother Marcia Jo Rocksund, 80. She passed away unexpectedly on June 27, in Everett, Washington.

Marcia was born July 29, 1945, in Whitefish, to Inez and Mark Parks. She lost her mother when she was just 18 months old. Her mother’s sisters, Darlene Ibsen and Nita Markus, helped raise her and her older sister, Pam, in Whitefish until her father moved. He and his second wife, Helen, gave Marcia three more siblings, Mark, Sharen and Chuck. The family lost her father, Mark, when Marcia was just 14 years old. Marcia was a resilient woman, surviving the loss of her parents, polio as a small child and breast cancer later in life. 

While living in California as a teenager, Marcia met and married Bruce Atkinson. They had two sons, Mike (1963) and Jeff (1967), before returning to Marcia’s roots, Whitefish, where they had their third son, Mark (1976). Marcia enjoyed raising her boys as a stay-at-home mom with fresh baked cookies or pumpkin bread awaiting their return from school. She began to work when she became a single mother after she and Bruce divorced.  Over the next several years, she worked at The Candlewick, First National Bank, and Mountain Bank, where she fostered many friendships as part of the Whitefish community. Throughout her life, Marcia felt and expressed her immense pride in her three sons and who they became as grown men. It is all thanks to her.

Marcia met and married Bill Rocksund in 1984. Their honeymoon was an amazing 100-mile horseback trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. They enjoyed spending time together camping, hunting and fishing. Lake Koocanusa was a favorite place. She, Bill and Mark moved to a home in Columbia Falls that Bill built for them on the river. This was her home when she became a grandmother. A role she relished. Her five grandchildren have special memories of baking Christmas cookies with her and having rubber ducky races in the creek at her and Bill’s cabin outside of Columbia Falls. Marcia’s heart was bigger than just biological family. She was family and a surrogate grandmother to friends and neighbors who celebrated holidays and baked cookies together and who she taught to sew. Sewing was a passion of Marcia’s, whether it was a quilt, Halloween costumes for her grandchildren or something else entirely, she loved it. Another love of Marcia’s was volunteering at the Montana Veteran’s Home in Columbia Falls where her husband, Bill, eventually lived and passed away.

After Bill’s passing, Marcia moved to Washington state in 2016 to be near her three sons and their families. She especially enjoyed family gatherings and watching her grandchildren compete in their sporting events. She remained close with Mark’s first wife, Andria, and was a surrogate grandmother to her younger children.  

Marcia leaves behind her sons Mike (Wendy), Jeff (Kim), and Mark (Christina); five grandchildren; four great grandchildren; and siblings Pam, Sharen, and Chuck. She was preceded in death by her husband, Bill, and brother Mark.  

A plaque and ashes will be placed with her mother in the Whitefish Cemetery.  A private family gathering will be held at a later date.