MARGARET MARLON CURRIE 4/9/1907 – 10/10/2008
Margaret Marlon Currie was born on April 9, 1907 in Philadelphia. Her mother died when Marge was very young, and Marge described a sad, lonely childhood, from which she longed for the warmth of family and friends. She remembered always having a thirst for people and experiences beyond her own constricted world.
She left home immediately after High School and, after receiving a degree from Drexel University, had a career as a home economics teacher, relishing growing relationships with people of different cultures and religions. She spoke with gratitude of a Jewish family with whom she made her first home as an adult. It was, perhaps, her first encounter with a different culture, and she said with some awe that they “accepted me as part of the family.” She flourished in this atmosphere. She also continued throughout her lifetime to search for people that would make up her ‘family.’
As a young teacher she grabbed experiences enthusiastically. She traveled one summer with a friend through Central America on a freighter, sleeping on the deck and becoming, one night, (for the first, and probably the last time in her life) giddily tipsy from some ‘medicine’ she took to settle her queasy stomach. While she always giggled recalling the story, she decided then that alcohol was not for her. In fact, she often said that her longevity was in part due to the fact that she only drank milk, never tea or coffee or alcohol.
At the start of World War II she joined the Women’s Army Corps, and spent most of her enlistment in the Pacific. She embraced all the experiences she encountered and marveled at her expanded world. She also saw war through enlightened eyes, and never forgot the waste and futility.
After leaving the army, she turned her energies to repairing the world. In her middle age she completed a Masters degree in social work from Columbia University. She became involved in the American Friends Service Committee, signing on as a cook at conferences and workshops all over the country. She was impressed by what she saw as Friends’ involvement in the world and their active commitment to social action as a direct outgrowth of worship. In her last years she often berated us for what she saw as an imbalance in that relationship – too much worship and too little action. Marge joined Bulls Head-Oswego MM in 1974, and her commitment to the Meeting and to Friends’ activities never diminished. She read voraciously, and as she read she would organize articles according to who she thought would be interested in them, and then arrive at Meeting for Worship with that week’s collection all labeled for appropriate recipients. She particularly enjoyed the Christian Science Monitor, and we are grateful that the Monitor did not stop publishing on newsprint until after Marge passed. Marge was part of the beginning of the women’s group at Bulls Head, and at Silver Bay she enlivened Women’s worship sharing every year. Until the summer of 2008, at 101 years old, she never missed a Yearly Meeting.
Through the years Marge was actively involved in peace work, women’s issues, Native American concerns, and found a true calling in prison work. She visited prisons as long as the system allowed. When it was required that she sign a statement agreeing not to correspond with inmates, she refused, and was thereafter prohibited from entering the prisons. She continued her extensive correspondence and, at the time of her death, was still in touch with approximately 100 inmates. She helped men re-enter society after incarceration, sometimes hosting them in her home for as long as they needed. In her 100th year she was still concerned with the world, the election, and the work yet to be done. She was determined to vote for Barak Obama, and in her last week was making plans to get to the polls. She died three weeks too soon.
She began visiting the Hudson Valley in the 1950’s, finally settling in Rhinebeck. She delighted in her little home in the woods, which she designed herself. Marge had a gift for friendship. She found family in the friends she gathered to herself as she traveled the course of her life. She loved knowing people and knowing about their lives. In all of the different phases of her life she made fast friends from all over the world. Until her death she was still in touch with, among others: friends she made from her days at AFSC, children and grandchildren of friends from AFSC, her social work supervisor from one of her first jobs, prisoners inside and out, her garden club, the Quarterly Meeting Prisons committee, the Democratic women’s committee – and on and on. At the end of her life she lived with her cherished friends Isaac and Eve and their three little boys; she had known Isaac since he was a little boy. A week before she died, as Friends were gathered at Marge’s bedside, a woman in her 60’s came to the door. She was the daughter of someone with whom Marge had taught school. Because of the impact that Marge had made on her mother some 60 or 70 years before, this woman had called after decades and she and Marge had made a date for lunch.
Marge was a vivid presence to everyone who knew her. She could be demanding, and in her last years modeled how to ask for what she needed. She was full of zest, laughter, adventure and commitment. Her relationship with God was through action, and through people. She was able to give love, and to receive it, for a long time – 101 years. She is greatly missed.
