- - - James David Roney and Marsha Dawn Roney (Mackovich) - - - Graveside Service & Celebration Details / Obituaries
Graveside Service
Greenhills Memorial Cemetery
11157 Gardner Road
Burlington, WA 98233
Saturday, June 6, 2026
11:00am - Cedar Garden
Celebration / Gathering with Lunch
Mount Vernon Elks Lodge #1604
2120 Market Street
Mount Vernon, WA 98273
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Immediately following graveside services
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James David Roney
1/28/1936 – 5/7/2025
James David Roney, age 89, passed away unexpectedly on May 7, 2025, in San Antonio, Texas.
Jim is survived by his wife and their three children - Scott Roney, Todd Roney (Kim), and Tina Ross-Holland (Mike), three grandchildren - Jeremy Roney, Kendall Roney, and Hannah Ross (Tristan Doyle), and three exchange students that also called him “grandpa” - Yuka Asano (Japan), Nomuun Odkhuu (Mongolia), and Beatriz Caetano (Brazil). Jim’s parents and two brothers preceded him in death.
Jim married Marsha, his high school sweetheart, while in the U.S. Army, stationed in Anchorage, Alaska, as a Radio Operator in the Alaska Communication System. They were married just short of 69 years.
After Jim’s honorable discharge from the Army, he became a barber and owned a shop in Western Washington. Not content with just cutting hair, he added a section for fishing and hunting gear. Jim was a born salesman, after a few years he bought a hardware store and moved his sporting goods and family to Eastern Washington. When Marsha said she had enough of hardware stores (she grew up in her father’s store), they moved back to Western Washington where Jim went to work for Boeing in the Quality Department and eventually retired from Boeing.
Jim’s children and grandchildren enjoyed listening to his stories of growing up and attending high school. His nickname was “Jimmy Coon” for the coonskin cap he always liked to wear. He ran a trap line, repaired bicycles, and had a paper route among other odd jobs to ensure he always had money in his pocket to court Marsha. Family gatherings always included stories about playing football, baseball and basketball, complete with animated details. He also shared stories about ice fishing in Alaska, surviving a couple incidents on a float plane, and driving the Alcan when it was 1,500 miles of gravel. Jim’s most favorite thing to do was to give/get $20 hugs from his grandchildren.
Jim was an avid sportsman. As a teenager he hunted deer and elk, in Alaska caribou hunting and fishing for salmon, then moose hunting in Canada, and elk hunting in the Blue Mountains of Washington. He also fished for Dungeness crab, picked oysters, and dug clams in Puget Sound. Later in life, Jim found fly fishing in Montana, first standing on the banks of the rivers, and then drifting the rivers when age caught up with him. And if that were not enough, he also found time to golf. Those that knew Jim well know that first pipe smoking and then cigars were a frequent pastime.
Jim was a 58-year member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE), belonging to lodges in Washington, Arizona, and Texas. He was a dedicated volunteer and once served as an Exalted Ruler.
A memorial service will be on May 31st at 11:00 a.m. at the Elks Lodge #216, 15650 Market Hill, San Antonio, TX. Jim's remains will later be returned to Washington, his birthplace. Memorial donations are suggested to the Elks National Foundation, 2750 N Lakeview Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614-2256, or at www.elks.org.
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Marsha Dawn Roney
9/5/1937 – 1/20/2026Marsha Dawn Roney (Mackovich), age 88, passed away peacefully on January 20, 2026, in San Antonio, Texas.
Marsha is survived by her three children – Scott Roney, Todd Roney (Kim), and Tina Ross-Holland (Mike), three grandchildren – Jeremy Roney, Kendall Roney, and Hannah Ross (Tristan Doyle), and three exchange students that also called her “grandma” – Yuka Asano (Japan), Nomuun Odkhuu (Mongolia), and Beatriz Caetano (Brazil). Marsha’s husband, James David Roney, preceded her in death along with her parents Joseph Mackovich and Stefonia Mackovich (Zygar).
Marsha married Jim, her high school sweetheart, while he was in the U.S. Army and stationed in Anchorage, Alaska. Jim made a quick trip home in June of 1956 to exchange wedding vows with Marsha at the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Pe Ell, Washington. They would both comment about having the longest honeymoon on record when they returned to Alaska where Jim fulfilled his 3-year commitment to the Army. Marsha and Jim spoke often of their time in Alaska, the small brick base housing apartment they lived in, driving on frozen lakes and ice fishing, and the long drive down the at-the-time gravel Alcan Highway, returning to Washington, to start the rest of their married life.
After graduating as valedictorian at Pe Ell High School, Marsha attended business school and worked at a law firm in Seattle, Boeing in Everett, and trekked to Eastern Washington to work side-by-side with Jim at the hardware store they purchased in Pomeroy, Washington. They wandered their way back to the Puget Sound in 1979, Marsha returned to Boeing and retired at the age of 58 under the “Golden Parachute”.
Marsha loved to travel, with one of her most memorable trips being to Poland, the birthplace of her father and paternal and maternal grandparents. Her Polish beans (green beans in a bacon grease and flour gravy), passed down over generations, will be missed when made by her loving hands for family gatherings. Her knack for clipping recipes from newspapers and magazines and trying them out on her family, including the awful green tomato pie, will be absent but never forgotten.
Volunteering kept Marsha busy after retirement. She was an active member of the Elks in Mount Vernon, Washington and San Antonio, Texas and also spent countless hours volunteering at the Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon as well as McIntyre Hall Performing Arts Center as an usher.
Marsha’s soft-spoken, kind, calm demeanor, excellent listening skills, and never being quick to judge made her a great friend to many – you know who you are.
At their wish, both Marsha and Jim’s remains will be returned to Washington, often referred to by Marsha as “God’s Country” where they will be laid to rest by Marsha’s parents at the Greenhills Memorial Cemetery in Burlington on June 6, 2026 at 11:00am. A reception will follow graveside services at the Elks in Mount Vernon. Memorial donations are suggested to the Washington German Shepherd Rescue, https://washingtongsd.org, a non-profit that also rescues Chihuahuas.
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