Marjorie Springmeyer — 1922-2016

Marjorie Springmeyer

By Kathryn Reed

Marjorie Johnson Springmeyer, pioneer, activist, environmentalist and vocal advocate for justice, died Jan. 28, 2016. She was 93.

Mrs. Springmeyer had been ill for a number of years.

She was born July 23, 1922, in Gardnerville.

Her mother, Stella Van Dyke, moved to the Carson Valley from Ohio to teach at Douglas High School. Her father, Knox Johnson, came to the United States from Denmark.

Mrs. Springmeyer spent her summers in Tahoe during the era when the basin had more cattle than people.

“We ran around all the time with our shoes off,” Springmeyer told this reporter.

The family owned a large swath of land in the basin – and still does. When her dad died Mrs. Springmeyer’s mother retained the land in the Bijou area of South Lake Tahoe. The family had already sold the land where the Truckee River goes under Highway 50 for $1,000 so the main thoroughfare through town could be built. The land where Safeway is has been owned for years by Mrs. Springmeyer and her brothers. Her estate also owns the property on Al Tahoe Boulevard where Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care is being built.

After World War II, she married Buzz Springmeyer on the family’s ranch in the Carson Valley. He had a garage in South Lake Tahoe where Auto Zone now exists.

Mrs. Springmeyer was the godmother to South Lake Tahoe City Councilman Hal Cole’s daughter. Cole wrote this article about Mrs. Springmeyer in 2012.

One of Mrs. Springmeyer’s biggest issues was having never seen the realization a city hall in South Lake Tahoe even though her family gave the land for this to be a reality.

She was a wealth of information about the history of the South Shore. She had volumes of documents; often which she kept in her vehicle when she would travel to City Council meetings.

The death of her daughter is how Happy Homestead Cemetery was created. Mrs. Springmeyer’s mother, Stella Johnson, provided the land for the cemetery. Since then the family has donated more acreage and some has been bought for the cemetery’s expansion.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Buzz Springmeyer; daughter Connie; and sons Jon Springmeyer and Fred Springmeyer.

Mrs. Springmeyer is survived by her brothers, Knox and Bill Johnson, and several grandchildren.

Services are expected to be in February.