It is with great sadness that the family of Margaret “Marge” Shade passed away on April 20, 2023 at the age of 99, just months before her 100th birthday.
Marge was born on July 4, 1923 in Eastland, Texas, the only child of Earl Ward Butler and Isabelle Heiso Butler. She attended El Paso High School until her family moved to Arizona in 1937, where she graduated from Clifton High School, where she attended the University of Arizona and Eastern Arizona College.
Marge married Karl Schede and founded Clifton’s Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company in 1952. The couple had three children, Karl, her Jr., Michael, and Susan. The family moved to Safford in 1964 to continue the Southeastern Bottling Company in Arizona. Here in Safford, Marge is the owner and CEO and has welcomed her entire family as workers in the business.
In her spare time, Marge has been a member of the Federation of Women’s Clubs of America since 1945, the Eastern Star since 1941, the Gila Valley Arts Council, the Friends of the Library, the Arizona Town Hall, the Graham County Historical Society, and the Greenlee County Historical Society. She is an American Legion Auxiliary, Safford Emblem Club, Mt. Graham Hospital Auxiliary, Mt. Graham Golf Association, Red Hats Society, Neighbors Farm & Family, House of Hope, First United Methodist Church. She has also sponsored a Garden Party at the Safford-Graham County Library, a Christmas House at the Mt. Graham Hospital Auxiliary, fundraisers for the American Diabetes Association, Bike Ride Plus, and Safford Downtown Merchants. She was named Woman of the Year by the Women’s Club of Safford from 1989 to 1990, won the Pepsi-Cola Community Leadership Award in 1989, Pepsi Bottler of the Year in 2018, and is an independent She ran the Pepsi-Cola franchise for 71 years.
Marge loved her family and friends and everything that had to do with them and their activities. She loves to travel and enjoyed traveling with her adoptive family. She was also adventurous, a trailblazer, and a unique, outgoing, generous, brilliant, and warm person. She was also bigger than her life and charismatic. Her favorite sayings are ‘where you plant it, it grows’, ‘people do what they look for, not what they expect’, and ‘anyone can succeed if you don’t worry about who will be credited’. was.
She has 8 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren, 2 great-grandchildren, and a daughter-in-law, Paula Shade.
Marge was predeceased by her parents Earl and Isabel Butler, children Karl W. Shade, Michael E. Shade, Susan E. Shade Decker, and great-grandson Inara Shade.
She has requested her services, viewing/visit only at Caldwell Funeral Chapel, McDougal, buried in Safford Cemetery on Saturday 29 April 2023 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Instead of flowers, the family requests donations to the House of Hope.
Click this link to view additional details about Margaret’s services, including available live streams. https://my.gather.app/remember/margaret-schade
Arranged under the direction of McDougal’s Caldwell Funeral Chapel & Gila Valley Crematory.
