Marlene Fitts

Marlene Rogers Fitts, age 91, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend, passed away peacefully Thursday morning, July 9 in the care of Brookdale Senior Living and UT Health Choice Hospice, Henderson, Texas.

Alta Marlene Rogers was born on January 10, 1935 in Bristow, Creek County, Oklahoma, the youngest of two daughters born to David William Rogers and Marion E. Carter.

She grew up in the Gypsy community where she attended school and graduated as salutatorian. After graduation she moved to Dallas where she attended the Stamps - Baxter School of Music and worked as an administrative assistant at Oak Cliff Bank and Trust.

Marlene married Horace Harold Fitts of Linden, Texas, on June 4, 1955 and gave birth to one son in 1958. After moving to Athens, Texas in 1963, she worked as a bookkeeper and assistant office manager for Athens Brick Company. She retired in 1999 after 34 years of service.

After retirement, she decided to relocate to Horseheads, New York so could be near her son’s family and later followed them to Carthage, Texas.

Marlene played both piano and organ for the First Church of God in Athens, Texas, in Sayre, Pennsylvania after her move to New York, and later in Spring Hill, Texas until her health began to fail.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her sister Wanda Rogers McCollum, her brother-in-law Harold L. McCollum, and her husband.

She is survived by her son Skip Fitts and his wife Jenice, of Carthage, TX; two grandsons, David Fitts and his wife Taylor, of Carthage, and Matt Fitts and his wife KyLee, of Onalaska, WI; and two great-grandsons, Rowan Reese and Hudson Hayes Fitts of Carthage.

Our family would like to express our profound gratitude to the administration and staff of Brookdale Senior Living in Henderson, Texas, for their dedication, caring, and tireless efforts in making her last years as active and comfortable as possible. We would also like to express our appreciation to the nurses and staff of UT Health Choice Hospice for their attentive care in her final days.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at the Jimerson-Lipsey Funeral Home Chapel with Bro. Larry Tart officiating. Interment will be held at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Linden Cemetery in Linden, Cass County, Texas with Bro. Randy Miller officiating. A time of visitation will be held from 10 - 11 a.m. at the funeral home on Tuesday, prior to the funeral service.

A guestbook may be signed at www.jimerson-lipsey.com.