Ethel M. Abbey

In the days when women in sports were a rarity, Marie E. Jacks was a trailblazer. Ms. Jacks was one of San Diego's most prestigious local athletes, one of only 49 women to be named a master professional life member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association in the organization's 60-year history. "She was truly one of the most energetic people I have ever known," said Randall Reed, 45, a longtime family friend who knew her as "Aunt Marie" since childhood. "It was just her ability to conquer whatever she wanted to do." Ms. Jacks was a professional golf teacher, a teacher and counselor with the Sweetwater Union High School District for more than 20 years, a longtime participant in Campfire Girls and an early member of Las Primeras, a philanthropic organization serving the Children's Home Society in San Diego. Ms. Jacks, who lived in Alpine, died Dec. 14 at an assisted living facility in Lemon Grove after battling cancer and Alzheimer's disease. She was 86. Born Nov. 28, 1923, Ms. Jacks was known as Baby Marie at the Children's Home Society orphanage before she was adopted, according to a three-page autobiography she wrote in the 1990s. At 14, she learned she was adopted; later in life, she learned that she had been the youngest of 10 siblings, some of whom had been put up for adoption after her biological mother died, and that she was of Danish descent. She was never married. She graduated from San Diego High School in 1941. A tall girl, she had already begun playing tennis by then. She briefly attended what was then San Diego State College, but her family was unable to pay for college so she spent the next few years working at a post office and, according to her notes, at Consolidated Aircraft. She finally saved enough money to enroll at the University of Arizona in 1944. Ms. Jacks became an athletic star there, excelling in golf, tennis and archery before her graduation in 1948, according to the university's athletic department. She returned briefly to San Diego after graduation before being offered a job as executive director of the Campfire Girls in Yuma. She was an executive with the organization in Arizona for six years, and remained in leadership positions with Campfire Girls in San Diego and Arizona throughout her life. Ms. Jacks' big break in golf came in 1954, when she was offered a job as an assistant golf pro at the San Diego Country Club. She joined the LPGA's teaching division in 1955, and taught full-time at the country club until 1957. She continued teaching part-time as a golf pro for decades, Reed said. "She was a great teacher and she had a great sense of humor," said Marilynn Smith, 80, of Phoenix, a fellow golf professional and founding LPGA member. "She loved to teach." In 1957, she turned her love for teaching into a job with the Sweetwater School District, initially teaching physical education at National City Junior High. Two years later she took a job as a counselor at Hilltop Junior High, where she spent most of her career until she retired in 1979, according to the school district. She obtained a graduate degree and counseling credential at San Diego State, according to her autobiography. Along with Ms. Jacks' love of sports and teaching came a general love of life, friends say. In addition to traveling around Europe, she also traveled to Africa on safari and extensively in the United States, Reed said. She made several trips to Denmark after learning that her biological father had been Danish; during one trip four years ago, she was the subject of a feature story in a Danish newspaper. "She would tell me, 'I'm going to go here, I'm going to go there,' " said Smith, whose still has a saguaro cactus outside her home that Jacks helped her plant during a trip to Arizona. "She was always loving to travel." Ms. Jacks made frequent trips to Arizona to visit her alma mater — she was known to always make it back for homecoming, according to the university — and several close friends. Jacks was also a lover of classical music and opera. One friend recalled her San Diego Opera season-ticket seats being in a location that was perfect for a woman who friends say was close to 6 feet tall. "She was a very tall woman, and she had these wonderful seats that were at the very back of the orchestra where there was no one behind her," said Janet Evans, 68, a longtime friend and a member, with her husband, of the University of Arizona Alumni Association. Reed, the executor of her estate, said she left a generous gift to the university. "She was adventurous, giving, just an amazing woman," Reed said. A celebration of her life will be held today at 2 p.m. at the San Diego Country Club, 88 L Street in Chula Vista. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to Campfire USA San Diego and Imperial Counties Council, PO Box 3275, San Diego, CA. 92163.