Melissa Anna (Larsen) Trezise
Marriages
Robert Charles "Bob" Trezise - June 4, 1934
at Eagle, Colorado.
Burial Details
Obituaries
Eagle Valley Enterprise page 8 - November 29, 2007
TREZISE SERVICES SET FOR DEC. 8.
A memorial service for long-time Eagle resident Melissa TREZISE will be held Saturday, Dec. 8 at 10 a.m.at the Methodist Church in Eagle.
A full obituary will follow in next week's Enterprise.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the Eastern Star Colorado Chapter No. 2 scholarship fund (Box 468, Leadville, Colo. 80461); to the Eagle Methodist Church; or to the Eagle County 4-H program.
Eagle Valley Enterprise page 13 - December 6, 2007
MELISSA TREZISE: A LIFETIME OF TEACHING.
Community bids farewell to beloved teacher, quilter, homemaker, by Kathy HEICHER, Enterprise Editor.
Talk to anybody who has lived in Eagle for more than 40 years, and chances are Melissa TREZISE was once their teacher.
Could be they were among the hundreds of third and fourth grade students who passed through her classroom at some point. She was always proud to count a couple of Eagle mayors and numerous Town Board members among the alumni of her elementary school classes.
Or maybe those students were adults who signed up for one of her quilting classes, offered through Colorado Mountain College, in the 1970s and 1980s. Or perhaps she used an interview with a newspaper reporter as an opportunity for gentle and fascinating lessons in local history.
When she wasn't teaching, she was learning, whether it be a homemaking lesson gleaned through participation in the Brush Creek Home Demonstration Club in the 1940s and 1950s; or the "new math" philosophy that was popular in classrooms in the 1960s.
TREZISE, a lifelong learner, died at the age of 94 at the Colorado State Veteran's Nursing Home in Rifle on Nov. 25.
Melissa was a native of the county, born March 15, 1913 in Gypsum to Hans and Hester (Figgens) LARSEN. She grew up on her parents' ranch on Brush Creek. Her mother taught her to quilt--a passion she enjoyed for the rest of her life.
LIFELONG EDUCATOR
Melissa knew early on that she wanted to be a teacher. Her family helped pay her way through a two-year course at the Colorado Teacher's College in Greeley with money they earned by selling cream. She graduated from the college in 1931.
Her first teaching job was in the one-room Catamount school in the northern Eagle County ranching community of Burns. She was 18 years old and in charge of teaching nine children in four different grades. One of those first-grade students was Jessie LUARK, who turned up in 2003 to help celebrate TREZISE's 90th birthday.
That first teaching job led to a post at a bigger school in Edwards the next year, where she had 33 students. Her teaching philosophy always involved building self-confidence in her pupils.
"A teacher's responsibility is to help students realize they are individuals, and that they mean something," she said in a 1974 newspaper interview.
On June 4, 1934, Melissa married a carpenter, Robert TREZISE, and moved to Eagle. For the next 17 years she devoted her time and energy to raising their children--daughter Mary Jo (GERARD), and son Robert.
She never really stopped teaching. While her kids were growing up, she taught Sunday School for 10 years, and was a 4-H leader. She particularly enjoyed participating in the Brush Creek Home Demonstration Club--a homemaker's educational program sponsored through the Colorado State University Extension Service. She often volunteered and participated in leader training meetings, then brought back new concepts and skills to share with fellow club members.
Melissa was a devoted member of the Eagle Community Methodist Church, and a 75-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star Eagle Chapter No. 86, where she served as Worthy Matron in 1938.
In 1951 she returned to the classroom, and ended up teaching at Eagle until her retirement in 1976.
Linda RUGGEBERG, an administrative assistant at Eagle County Schools,had TREZISE for a teacher in the 3rd and 4th grades. She loved the teacher with the warm smile and nice laugh.
"I remember a spelling bee--I was supposed to spell 'ghost'--I left out the 'h' and added an 'e,'" she recalls.
Melissa's daughter, Mary Jo, remembers that her mother had a way of making learning fun. Students would race to the blackboard to solve problems in math contests. Melissa developed "about a gazillion" concentration games to help students learn topics ranging from explorers to Colorado history.
"She encouraged her students to learn. She had several who read not only every book in her library; but they read the encyclopedias, too," notes Mary Jo. When new math came along, Melissa organized an instruction session for parents, so they could help the kids with homework.
Son Robert has a memory of his mom helping him with music lessons. While he played the piano, she would stand behind him, clapping her hands to keep time.
"I was terrible with rhythms," he confesses. But those lessons paid off. Robert made a career out of teaching music. In 1983, Melissa was the Grand Escort to Robert when he served as Grand Organist for the Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star. He will play the music at her memorial service.
STITCHING HISTORY
After retirement, she had more time to devote to her family, and to quilting. She taught quilting through Colorado Mountain College. RUGGEBERG, who took one of the classes, recalled that while the students stitched, TREZISE read stories out loud to them.
"It was just like when we were kids," she says.
The quilts provided a sort of fabric platform for Melissa's family's history. She had saved cardboard quilt pattern templates that belonged to her mother and grandmother. In 2000, at the age of 86, Melissa shared six generations of quilts and her family history in a well-detailed presentation hosted by Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs. A year later, she reprised that program for the Eagle County Historical Society.
Melissa preferred the intricate piecing of quilts over he actual finishing process of stitching the layers together. When Melissa's health began to fail, Mary Jo found 53 completed quilt tops in her mother's closets. Mary Jo is finishing those colorful blankets.
Not too many years ago, RUGGEBERG thought of TREZISE after discovering the pieces of an unfinished quilt in a closet. She though of her old teacher, and decided to hand over the half-done pieces.
"She wouldn't keep it. She said 'I want you to finish it,' " recalls RUGGEBERG. It was just the way an understanding teacher would encourage a student.
*****
Melissa TREZISE was preceded in death by her husband, Robert, who died in 1962. Survivors include daughter Mary Joan GERARD and son-in-law Claude of Gypsum; son Robert of Red Cliff; grandchildren Melissa (Jack) FORD of Eagle, and Anna (J. Ponce) and Lloyd (Heather) GERARD of Gypsum; and eight great-grandchildren.
The family asks that memorial contributions be directed to either the United Methodist Church of Eagle Valley, 138 Howard St., Eagle, Colo. 81631; Eagle County 4-H, P.O. Box 239, Eagle Colo. 81631; or the Dessie Powell Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 468, Leadville, Colo. 80461.
Eagle Valley Enterprise page 8 - December 13, 2007
[Letters to the Editor]
REMEMBERING MELISSA.
Regarding the obituary of Melissa TREZISE: She was my fourth-grade teacher, from 1965 to 1966, in Eagle, Colo. At the time, my mother, Thelma DING, was owner and postmaster of the Edwards Store and Post Office, at Edwards, from 1957 to 1966, which was housed, along with our living quarters, in the two-story log building, currently located at 34129 U.S. Highway 6. (Unfortunately, the historic place, built by another well-known teacher, Mary (Fenno) THOMAS, in 1929, is to be razed next year, in favor of condos.) I remember my first day of school, and Mrs. TREZISE said we could remember her name as "trees" plus the word, "eyes."
I currently work for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas as a Systems Analyst, and my mother is a retired teacher herself, living in Glenwood Springs.
Jeanine (Ding) KASTNER
TREZISE THANKS.
Thank you for your kind thoughts, prayers, and support during this time of loss of our mother and granny.
The Family of Melissa TREZISE.
Eagle Valley Enterprise page 1 - February 17, 2000
FAMILY CELEBRATES GENERATIONS OF QUILTING, by Gail Cameron-Britt.
Pedestrians line the Grand Avenue crosswalk fronting Colorado Mountain College in downtown Glenwood Springs. As commuter traffic stops momentarily for the walkers, motorists take pause to gaze into the glass-paned atrium of the college where the vibrant colors of cobalt blue, azure red, persimmon pink and canary yellow are harmoniously interwoven into a quilt.
After all, even if only for just a moment, the world beyond the panes of glass deserves our undivided attention. For that world's threads of tradition hold memories of a more simple time, when horse-drawn wagons passed in front of clapboard houses, when a little girl hid under a wooden table between remnants of fabric that would be pieced together to form a quilt.
Last Friday night an exhibition of quilts led men and women alike to the CMC event, " The Threads of Tradition,"as several Colorado-made quilts were featured.
Among them was "Meg's Quilt," a blue visionary quilt of horses at play.
The card next to the quilt explained the setting: "I made this quilt for my daughter, Meg ROBINSON, in 1999 in Silverthorne. The center panel, the horse, is a Balinese, that had to be surrounded by borders of my own design. I decided to tell the story of Meg's life in these borders, echoing her loves of horses and the outdoors."
And so it goes.
Every quilt carries the folklore of its creator, a fable, a whimsy, a precious moment, a life. As good fortune would have it, at this particular exhibition of quilts, there was a rare opportunity to explore the lives behind the windows of six generations of quilt makers.The fact that this family has its roots in the Eagle area made it all the more sweet.
If the name Melissa Larsen TREZISE strikes a familiar chord, it should.
She has lived on Howard Street in Eagle for 46 years. She is a former school teacher in the valley, is an active member of the Community United Methodist Church in Eagle, and her quilts are legendary.
It's no wonder that she was urged to exhibit her quilts, and those of her family, in the "Threads of Tradition" display. But for the crowd of her admirers,it was the story telling of this quiltmaker that provided the colorful, historical depth to the many quilts on display, all fashioned by family members with love, from the early 1900s to the present.
All eyes turned to TREZISE as she read her handwritten notes, recreating the past, and weaving the tales that would eventually be transformed from various pieces of fabric, into the unity of a quilt.
She read,"My mother's people came to Colorado from Iowa in the early 1900s. My grandmother, Melissa Damon HIGGINS, had to be very frugal. Without a sewing machine, she sewed their clothes by hand. Every piece of scrap material was hoarded for future use, including making quilts," said TREZISE, who added that her grandmother's quilts were closely tied with grocery string. For a quilting frame, she used curtain stretchers, making her own templates from brown paper which she folded to make different shapes.
The mother of Melissa TREZISE was Mary Hester Figgens LARSEN, who used the quilt patterns available in both newspapers and magazines. "The Kansas City Star published patterns often. She spent a great part of her evening marking and cutting out the quilt pieces for templates. She used the cardboard that bias tape was wound on, along with cereal boxes, and Big Chief tablet backs. Her quilt material came from scraps left over after making dresses, aprons and bonnets," said TREZISE.
Often her mother would also add a quarter of a yard or more to her fabric order, as just buying material for quilts was considered an unnecessary expense.
"My father, who came to this country from Denmark in 1910, enjoyed my mother and her quilt making. When he had time he helped her tie the quilts, always bragging about his perfect square knots, and teasing her about meals of quilt pieces."
TREZISE continued her legacy of quiltmaking, talking about her own story, the third generation in the tradition.
"I belong here. My quilt making started by making quilts for my dolls. I learned to make a Four Patch, combining two light squares with two dark squares. I had learned to sew on the the sewing machine. After I was married, the need for bedding renewed my interest in quilts. My mother really came in handy. Together we made three quilts, including a six point star quilt, a Jacob's Ladder and a Necktie," said TREZISE.
The fourth generation of quiltmaking in this family is represented by Mary Jo Trezise GERARD.
"As a child, she played under the quilts when they were being tied. It was great fun. She was always my number one helper. She has a lovely Log Cabin quilt in the making now."
Anna Marie GERARD and Melissa Gerard FORD represent the fifth generation of quilts in the family. They are the granddaughters to Melissa TREZISE.
As she relates, "Anna and the sewing machine weren't ever friends, so she chose to sew the blocks of the Four Patch quilt by hand. Melissa wasn't interested in making a quilt, but was eager to learn how it was done. At age 12 she could make the sewing machine almost talk. When she was a junior in high school she made a quilt as part of an assignment for home economics class. It was a Shoo Fly pattern,that rated a red ribbon in Open Class at the county fair."
Joanne Virginia FORD, a sixth grader at Eagle Valley Middle School, is the sixth generation of quiltmakers in the family.
As her great-grandmother says, "Joanne was always the curious one. She always wanted to know. She was fascinated with the sewing machine and spent much time sitting on my lap when she was little, as I sewed. She liked to play with the Four Patch blocks I had made, and called them her mountains," said TREZISE, who proceeded to tell the story of her great granddaughter deciding to create her own quilt for the county fair, drawing her own design out with crayons. She and her grandmother, Mary Jo, pinned and sewed them together on the machine. It got a blue ribbon at the fair.
If you haven't yet seen the TREZISE exhibit at CMC, there is still time to stop by. The display along with other featured quilts will remain in the atrium through the end of February.
At home on Howard Street Tuesday, TREZISE was already talking about her next excursion: a visit to Gypsum and the quilting circle of the First Lutheran Church.
"I hope the ladies won't think I'm intruding," she said.
That probably won't be a problem.
Vail Daily page A4 - December 8, 2007
LOCAL MELISSA TREZISE, 94, DIES
Gypsum-- Melissa Anna TREZISE passed away Nov. 25 at the Colorado State Veteran's Nursing Home in Rifle. Mrs. TREZISE was 94 years old.
She was born on March 15, 1913, in Gypsum. Her parents were the late Hans Thone and Hester (Figgins) LARSEN. TREZISE pursued a career in elementary education and took great pride in her profession.
On June 4, 1934, she married Robert TREZISE and together they had two children. TREZISE remained in the Eagle area where they were active in the community.
In her youth, TREZISE belonged to Camp Fire Girls. She served the Eagle County 4-H as a leader for four years. TREZISE loved quilting and taught quilting classes at Colorado Mountain College and would occasionally pu ton quilting exhibitions. Her talent was truly that of an artist. TREZISE was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star Eagle Chapter No. 86 and served as Worthy Matron in 1938.
TREZISE was the grand escort to her son Robert TREZISE when he was the grand organist for the Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star in 1983-84. When the Eagle Chapter closed she became a member of the Leadville Chapter No. 2. In 2006, TREZISE received her 75 year pin.
Mrs. TREZISE was also a member of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society and a devoted member of the Eagle Community Methodist Church, serving as the Sunday school superintendent there for six years. She was the first member on the cradle roll of this church.
She is preceded in death by her parents and husband, who died in 1962.
TREZISE is survived by her daughter, Mary Joan (Claude) GERARD, of Gypsum; son Robert Charles TREZISE, of Red Cliff; and three grandchildren, Melissa (Jack) FORD, of Eagle, Anna (J. Ponce) and Loyd (Heather) GERARD, both in Gypsum. Eight great-grandchildren also survive.
Memorial services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the United Methodist Church of Eagle Valley at 138 Howard St., Eagle. The Reverend Joyce HUDIBERGH will officiate. Arrangements are being handled by Bailey Funeral Home in Leadville.
Those wishing to make a memorial contribution can do so to the United Methodist Church of Eagle, 138 Howard St., Eagle, CO 81631, The Eagle County 4-H, P.O. Box 239,Eagle, CO 81631, or the Dessie Powell Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 468, Leadville, CO 80461.
