Memory Folder - Life Story Funeral Homes

Joanne “Jodie” Marshall Doster was born August 9,
1938, in Plainwell, Michigan, the oldest child of
William H. and Paige (Woodward) Marshall. She
grew up in her father’s funeral home in Plainwell
and through the years. She and her sister, Mary,
helped their mom and dad set up chairs and
vacuum the carpets, before and after funerals.
In those years the funeral home was alive with
the sounds of piano, drums, march music and
the laughter of young children, as Jodie and Mary
practiced their dancing, musical instruments, singing, and baton twirling.
Of course there were many times when the girls had to be very quiet and
they were sent to their rooms upstairs where they had to rest and read
until funeral serviced or visitations were over! Then things got noisy again,
with friends visiting and Jodie, with Mary’s help, giving dance lessons to
the neighborhood girls in the funeral home garage, or Mary practicing her
drumming, and Jodie teaching baton in the back yard.
By the time she reached 7th grade, Jodie was the youngest majorette in the
high school band, becoming the featured twirler and drum majorette in the
9th-12th grade. She continued to be active in the tap and ballet dancing,
and joined the high school French Club, Speech Club, Student Council, and
newspaper staff. She was one of the four juniors elected to the National
Honor Society, and served as secretary of the society in her senior year. Jodie,
was also given the honor of giving the speech at graduation.
After high school Jodie attended Western Michigan University on a four year
complete scholarship as the featured twirler with the WMU Marching Band.
In her college years she also performed at half-time shows for the Detroit
Lions, Chicago Bears, and Marching Band Festivals throughout the state. In
her first two and a half years at WMU, Jodie continued to compete in baton
competitions throughout the USA, and won two of the most coveted national
open championships: Grand champion of the Tangerine Bowl, in Orland,
FL, when she was the featured performer at the halftime
show on January 1, 1957, and in May 1957 she won the
coveted national grand champion title in the Tulip Festival
in Holland, MI where she performed in the Tulip Time Variety
Show in the Holland Civic Center. Jodie was also honored
in the senior year at WMU to be elected by the faculty to Pi
Gamma Mu, the national social science honor society.
Jodie began teaching baton twirling when she was in
the 10th grade in 1954, and spent the next 40 years
training thousands of young people to become experts