Marjorie Joan Whited (Umphenour), 89, of Kansas City, Missouri, passed away on Monday, February 16, 2026, at her home in Kansas City. She was born on Thursday, March 5, 1936, in Pleasanton, Kansas, the daughter of William Lee Umphenour and Eva Pearl Umphenour.
Marjorie grew up in Pleasanton, where she excelled in school, graduating as class valedictorian. Following graduation, she went to work at the Bendix Corporation in Kansas City, Missouri, where she met Ben E. Whited. The couple married and settled in Higginsville, Missouri, where their three children were born.
When her children came along, Marjorie devoted herself fully to raising them. She was a hands-on mother who worked alongside her family in the fields and in the kitchen, and she was deeply committed to her children’s education – working with them after school on reading, writing, and arithmetic. She was meticulous with numbers, had excellent penmanship and grammar, and possessed a steel-trap memory that never let anything slip by.
Marjorie was an accomplished seamstress, a devoted gardener and canner, and a faithful reader of her Bible. Those who knew her understood that she was as strong and capable as she was intelligent – a farm-raised Kansas woman through and through. She also had a well-known liking for a warm cup of coffee and a soft spot for chocolate.
She was preceded in death by her parents and by Ben E. Whited, who passed away on April 3, 2023. Surviving are her sons, Aaron “Tony” (Sherlyn) Whited of Leawood, Kansas, and Michael Whited of Columbia MO; and daughter, Monica Whited of Kansas City, MO; grandchildren, Garrett (Brianna) Whited, and Heather (Bryce) McMillin of Warrensburg, MO; sisters, Juanita Mitchell, Donita Miller, and Bernice Umphenour of Kansas City.
A graveside service will be held at 11:00 AM on Friday, February 27, 2026, at the City Cemetery in Higginsville, Missouri. Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Stewart-Hoefer Funeral Home.and online condolences may be made to the family at www.stewarthoeferfuneralhome.com
Source: KMZU, The Farm
