Marcia Gay Gossard

Marcia Gay Gossard, age 99, of Nashua, IA, died Sunday, August 9, 2026, at her home in Nashua.

Hugeback – Johnson Funeral Home & Crematory – Olson Chapel in Nashua has been entrusted with arrangements.

Marcia Gay (Kidder) Gossard was born on September 28, 1926, in Dodge Center, Minnesota, to Gladys Julia Gardinier and George Sumner Kidder.

Positive, organized, fun-loving, strong, and endlessly capable—these were the words that described Marcia. She lived with a can-do attitude that carried her through every season of life, bringing warmth, steadiness, and joy to the people around her.

Marcia attended Claremont High School, where she participated in chorus, band, cheerleading, speech, and drama. Her favorite subjects were math and geometry. She also developed a lifelong talent for sewing. Her mother taught her to sew on a treadle sewing machine, and Marcia was later named County Style Queen, earning a place at the Minnesota State Fair.

Marcia met the love of her life, Robert LeRoy Gossard, when she was 14 years old. They met by chance in the cattle barn at the Dodge County Fair. When Marcia returned home, she told her mother she had met “the sweetest boy” and said, “When I grow up, I am going to marry him.” She and Bob continued to see each other at 4-H events and, after high school, stayed in touch through letters when Bob joined the Army Air Corps and Marcia attended Minneapolis Business College.

Marcia later took a job in New York City with the Office of War Information, where she took dictation and typed. She left that job to marry Bob on May 11, 1945, in Tampa, Florida, when she was only 18 years old. What began as love at first sight became a deep, lifelong partnership that lasted 60 years.

Shortly after their wedding, Bob was sent overseas to serve as a navigator of a B-29 Superfortress. During the year he served his country, Marcia lived with her parents in Claremont, Minnesota. She worked for the Post Office and at Botsford Lumber, where she kept the books.

After Bob returned home from the war, Marcia and Bob moved to Alton, Iowa. Bob worked at the bank, while Marcia worked for the county draft board and as a clerk at the Sioux County Courthouse in Orange City. They started their family in 1950. After Craig and Carol were born, Marcia devoted herself to raising her children and running the household—keeping the budget, tending the house and yard, planning meals, cooking and baking, giving haircuts, and sewing nearly all of the family’s clothes.

Marcia’s favorite pastimes included sewing, gardening, playing the piano, golfing, playing cards, and baking delicious pies. She gave generously of her time and talents, finding joy in caring for her family, her home, and her community.

Even at 99 years of age, when her body was bent, her hearing loss was significant, and her memory had faded, Marcia continued to live in her own home with the same positive, can-do spirit that defined her life. She was lovingly cared for by her children and her caregivers:  Staci Taylor, Becky Schmidt, Theresa Martinson, Kelly Hakes, Andrea McFarland, and Jackie Hoggins. 

Marcia is survived by her sister Carol Parker (age 101!), her children Craig (Maureen) Gossard and Carol Frye, her grandchildren Trisha (Chip) De Preter, Julia Odugbesan, and Abby (Lindsay) Frye, and her great-grandchildren Dean and Hansel De Preter, Lola and Kemi Odugbesan, and Ellis Frye. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Robert LeRoy Gossard, and her favorite son-in-law, Bill Frye.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Chapter EN of the P.E.O. Sisterhood (in care of Beth Wilson; 310 Lexington Avenue, Nashua, IA 50658) or the Nashua Public Library (in care of Heather Hackman; PO Box 619, Nashua, IA 50658).

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