Margaret Lucille (nee DeBenedictis) Sterk

Sterk, Margaret Lucille (nee DeBenedictis), devoted and beloved wife, mother, and grandmother, passed away on December 24, 2022 at age 90, after a brief battle with old age. Marge was born February 12, 1932 in Cleveland, OH. She married Joseph Sterk, November 29, 1958 in Cleveland, OH, where they lived until they moved in 1973 to Minnesota where Joe was offered a job transfer from Honeywell. They raised their two children, Tracy and Mark, in Plymouth, MN, where they made many wonderful friends.
Marge maintained an impressive vegetable garden, which fueled her many hours in the kitchen cooking and baking the most fantastic meals. If you ate at her dinner table, second helpings were mandatory. And someone always had to finish the salad.
While Marge had many unique jobs throughout the years the job she most enjoyed was Mom. And her skills and hours schlepping children to and from homes, events, and pizza parlors (even late into the night and into the adulthood of her children and their friends) would rival the most accomplished Uber driver. She adored her kids (most of the time), acknowledging Tracy as her favorite daughter, and Mark as ‘Mark the Good’. After the birth of her first grandson she was simply, Grandma, the pinnacle achievement in any good Italian family.
With Joe, she was an avid golfer, bridge player, and puzzle solver. After the children left home Marge and Joe wintered in South Texas, coming back for summer sports games and a fun-filled annual week at Fair Hills Resort. In 2021 they moved full time to South Texas.
To know Marge was to love her. And also to fear her — a little. But you never had to wonder where you stood with her or what she was thinking — she would just tell you. She could be short on patience and long on opinions, a trait she passed down to her children (at least one of them).
Marge is preceded in death by her parents, Carmen and Carmella DeBenedictis and many other extended family members — especially her sister and best friend, Florence Petan, who has probably been wondering what took her little sister so damn long. Marge is survived by her loving husband of 64 years, Joe, favorite daughter Tracy (Erik Aamoth), son Mark the Good (Stephanie) and four adoring grandsons, Joseph & Michael Aamoth and Hunter & Jacob Sterk.
Marge, the quintessential Italian Grandma, lived fully until the end and left quickly, which is exactly how she wanted it — she never was long on patience. She will be missed dearly.
Memorial service 2pm, Wednesday January 11, 2023 at John Knox Village, Friendship Hall, Weslaco, TX. Celebration of life at a later date in MN. In lieu of flowers please share a plate of pasta with the ones you love.