Marion Fuller Archer, age 90, of Birmingham, AL
died in peace on Saturday, September 1 in
Birmingham. She is survived by 4 children: Marian 
(Polly) Archer (Larry Gaber) of Dublin, VA; Ruth
Archer (Jim Helke) of Homewood, IL; Jane Archer
of Birmingham, AL; and Ben Archer (Gale Barkus)
of Pittsburgh, PA; 5 grandchildren: Diana & Daniel
Archer, Caitlin, Seth & Ethan Archer-Helke; a
step-granddaughter, Tiffany Frazier (Gregory); and 
2 step-great-granddaughters, Mikaela & Joanna. 
She will be remembered with love and appreciation 
by countless readers and school children who grew 
up with her books in Wisconsin and throughout the 
country. She was born in Creswell, OR of pioneer 
stock on February 9, 1917. She earned her BA degree 
at the University of Oregon in French and was elected 
to Phi Beta Kappa in 1938 and her MS in Library 
Science from Columbia University in 1941. She worked 
in libraries as a children's librarian and cataloger in 
Idaho, Oregon, Michigan, and the University of 
Wisconsin-Oshkosh, from which she retired as Professor 
Emeritus in 1975. She married Leonard B. Archer, Jr. on 
February 14, 1945 and shared a life of books and reading 
with him until his death in November 2003.

She was from a family of storytellers and was, in her 
words, "a chronic scribbler" from the age of 5,  
publishing her first story at the age of 7. When she and 
her husband moved their family from Vermont to Wisconsin
in 1958, she began writing historical fiction about their new 
home to assuage the homesickness of her oldest daughters. 
She discovered her own roots in the Fox Valley of 
Wisconsin and wrote of the brave and colorful people of 
many cultures who settled Oshkosh in the immigrations of 
the 19th century. She taught her children the joys of 
research, the fascination of history, and the solace of a 
good story. None of her children will forget the sound of her 
typewriter as she flew at the keys to create novels, story 
collections, and the Wisconsin history that a generation of 
school children used as a text in their fourth grade classes. 
She was an accomplished pianist and taught her children a 
love of music. She taught children's literature at the University 
of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, instilling in her students a respect for 
a genre that rears our children as surely as do the ABCs. 

She founded the Golden Archer Award, now sponsored by 
the Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology 
Association, in 1973. Unlike other children's book awards, 
this is a student's choice award. It includes a Little Archer 
for the best picture book of the year.

She was a member of the Religious Society of Friends 
(Quakers) and taught her children to honor everyone
in kindness, to see the light in every soul. She loved 
pansies; each of her children plants them every year. 
The family asks that you do the same in celebration of 
her life. Polly, Ruth and Ben would like to acknowledge 
their love and gratitude for Jane's grace and love in 
caring for our mother in the final years of her life as 
her power of words slipped away.

A memorial celebration of her life will be held at the 
Madison Friends Meeting House in Madison on 
Saturday, October 13, 2007 at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, 
the family asks that contributions be sent to The 
Golden Archer Award, Sandy Heiden, WEMTA Treasurer, 
W4559 Kluge Road, Black Creek, WI 54106.