Marj Teague

If you were trying to go to doxiepuppies.com (The Dachshund Store), you're in the right place. I retired at the end of 2008.

Marjorie Louise Lemley Teague was born in Pittsburgh, PA on Sept. 26, l934.

Marj's father was engaged in defense work during the Second World War. That service eventually took the family to Rhode Island where she and her sister, Ruthie, graduated from high school. While in high school Marj sang with the Rhode Island Opera Choral Society and performed in the chorus of several professional productions. In a high school production of Menotti's "The Telephone" she sang the role of "Ben". "I wasn't good. They just couldn't find a boy brave enough to sing the part."

Her art training was primarily at Watkins Institute, with Juanita Greene Williams in Nashville.

Two years later she entered the United States Marine Corps and was discharged as a First Lieutenant.

She married in 1959 was divorced three years later. She moved to Williamstown, West Virginia in 1962 to reside with her parents and rear her children Bill and Ginny.

She was in business as an artist and picture framer and then as a dachshund dog breeder for approximately 47 years. A bone-fusing operation on her right hand eventually ended her ability to operate her gallery.

She began lessons in Tae Kwon Do at age 57. She earned her Black Belt from the school of Sock Ho Kang by the time she was 60 and received four medals in Women's Competition along the way. Occasionally she would be kicked and complain to Ginny about her bruises. Ginny would just say, "If you don't want to get hurt, don't go there." But of course, Marj didn't give up. She was not a "giver-upper".

Marj taught Sunday School in the Church of Christ for about 30 years. Her favorite lesson was the one that employed the full-sized cross that her father constructed for her. She would challenge children to hold on to the handles on the cross piece. If they could suspend themselves there for 5 minutes, she would give them $5. Only one boy was ever able to do it.

She was particularly dedicated to the Church in India and traveled to that land to see the operation headed by Dhanara Raju Bonthu in Amahlapurim. She taught several classes while there and was thrilled when nine Indian ladies became convinced of their need to become Christians and were baptized after her teaching. She said, "They had already been taught by Bonthu. I just gave them a little nudge, but it was still exciting."

She traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia two summers to teach Bible to children with World Wide Youth Camps.

One year Marj and her sister Ruthie went to London and Paris thanks to Bill's Frequent Flyer Miles. Marj was afraid of what it would cost. Bill said "The way you live, $500". They lived on bottled water and sandwiches and stayed in a dump of a hotel in Paris. Ruth had to walk through her open suitcase to get to the bathroom!

She took great pleasure in the fact that her children, Bill and Ginny became Christians in grade school and that later they attended Christian colleges and married believers. Nothing has been more important to her than that her children and grand-children are saved.

Dog breeding (miniature dachshunds) started as a hobby and eventually became her retirement years business. In 2007 she sold her last English Cream dachshunds.

Upon retirement as an artist her original paintings and remaining stock of reproductions prints were donated to Ohio Valley University, Parkersburg, WV. Much of her work is on display there.