Born October 20, 1925 in Cleveland, OH, my mom’s adventures in life began early. After her father lost his politically appointed engineering job and the Great Depression began, the family moved to a farm in Coshocton, OH where her parents, older sister Betty and younger brother Charles learned to become much more self-reliant and creative with the resources they did have. This was a trait mom carried with her throughout her life. Stories of the farm animals (baby lambs became the topic of an illustrated child’s book she wrote for us) and of the day they got a covered passageway to their outhouse, were often told. When an opportunity arose for her father to get another engineering job in Tampa, FL, off the family went. Mom loved her time there with so many friends and things for a teenager to do. After World War II began her father wished to re-enlist and help with the cause but due to health issues he was unable to do so, but the family relocated to Chevy Chase, MD where he was able to work for the department of the army. Mom spent her senior year there and the next year she was off to study art at the Corcoran Art Department at George Washington University. She earned her AA degree but not before tragically losing her father at age 19 of a sudden heart attack on his way to work. Of course this was a traumatic event not only for her but the whole family. Her mother Irene had many challenges but managed to take care of everyone and everything. Mom was very close to her mother and I found a loving tribute she wrote to her that she had published in a paper when living in VT. Her adventures in MD had started with jobs as a counter girl at a dry cleaner and a waitress at the Hot Shoppe. She thought it even likely she passed her future inlaw, who was an usher at the Bethesda movie theater, several times. She had to economize though so another theater in town offered cheaper shows so she went there more. After college she worked for an accountancy firm (and did an art commision for them) and then at Army Map Service where she would draw maps based on photography for them, always careful to make sure what she was seeing would be as accurate as possible. Single, she lived with her mother who was very picky about her dates, often flashing the front porch lights if she was lingering too long in a car out front with one she didn’t approve of. Irene loved the beach and bought a small cottage (a former drive thru restaurant) in Nags Head, NC that mom and her mother remodeled and stayed in or rented. Her mom worked in the production office of The Lost Colony play where she would give the paycheck to one of the play’s actors, Andy Griffith and even dated several times the twice Olympic bronze medal decathlon winner Floyd “Chunk” Simmons. Floyd was an artist too and even wanted mom to help him run a business with him doing the painting and her doing the bookkeeping. No offence to the Simmons family, but my mother was a wonderful artist and better then him so I think the suggested arrangement was backwards. Mom’s artwork was a lifelong endeavor and I don’t just say this as her child, but she was truly a wonderful sculptor and acrylic painter and also a sketch and pen and ink artist. She won many awards and sold her art. She had the most amazing touch in selecting and balancing colors in a composition and to this day I can see her running the tools over a half formed mound of terracotta clay and gently catching bits of grog with them as she worked.
Her biggest love and devotion though was to her husband and children. She met Dad when she began working at the reception desk in the Clinical Building at NIH. He was the shy nuclear biophysicist that mom’s boss encouraged her to meet and date. Ironically she had just dated a man with the same exact name as my father -such a crazy coincidence. They hit it off and would go to concerts and eat at the Hot Shoppe together. He would say she was the one because he would always get his coin back from the payphone after talking to her. Also he said she was good luck because after dating her he got the job he had been hoping for in Building 2 at NIH. They soon married but not before she took a six week trip to Europe that had been planned before they met (and thanks to her Pan Am pilot brother who had a ticket that Irene, who was afraid of flying, and wouldn’t use). Always a lover of the mountains, Switzerland was her favorite stop.
Mom and dad married in 1958 and built a house on property that dad had in Rockville, MD. That is where all three of us kids were born and where we have tons of childhood memories from. Mom had wanted children her whole life and dad did too and their love for us was obvious. With dad busy working and not having a love of travel, mom took us on many, many small adventures: an open house at the Kuwaiti Embassy, a musical at Shady Grove outdoor theater, estate sales, simple shopping trips, travel to OH to see relatives, a trip to Klingman’s dome in TN, arranging ice skating classes not only for us but our fellow elementary school students at Cabin John Rink. Of course she was a room mother, involved in PTA, taught us kids art. We all entered artwork in shows (she often signed her art “Marjie”) and at the Montgomery County Fair. She later also became a 4H recruiter and sold Avon in the neighborhood delivering the packed bags on her bike (we loved seeing the new products but my dad hated perfume so we had to store any goodies we bought for ourselves in the basement.) They also bought 60 acres in West Virginia that my parents thought one day they might settle on but that plan never happened. But we kids loved the trips there and especially during apple season where we would buy bags of them and sit in the back of the station wagon and just stuff overselves. There were many of the classics too like baking bread (she said we should punch and kneed the bread like we were trying to get our frustrations out) and making rock salt ice cream with a crank maker. There are so so many memories, far too many to write about here!!!
When Dad decided to retire, we moved to Gettysburg, PA, in 1976 where they then and now my brothers remain to this day. The small farm they own was loved by us all. My dad started a greenhouse business that continues to this day also. And mom always enjoyed designing planters and baskets and helping with sales. When we kids were starting out on our own, mom, always a social person with an endless love of life and new experiences (yes in her day she even swam, skied, ice skated, played tennis, biked) decided to write human interest stories for some of the area papers like the Gettysburg Times, Hanover Sun, York papers. At first they would send a photographer along but she decided to start taking her own pictures and bought what she called a decent camera and did it. She loved the people she met and loved to tell stories about those people and times and about her life in general.
Later years found my mom and dad building and living part year for several years in a cabin in Lyndon Station, VT. Mom loved that place, swimming at the college pool, going out with friends and continuing her artwork and newspaper story writing but more as an occasional contributor at this point. Sadly as both my parents aged, it became hard for them to continue living in VT so they returned back home to Gettysburg full time. Her grandson Nate was born at this time and visits to us continued until it became too hard but she loved him, making him a small Noah’s Ark quilt (with a bunch of animals). for example. We then continued visiting them as much as we could. Mom continued her art, sold items at the Hanover Art Guild, met up with friends and continued to live life and appreciate her life to the fullest as long as she could. She was a wonderful Christian woman who lived the faith by example. She taught me to appreciate and enjoy the tiniest often mudune or common of things (something that as a typical kid it took me years to appreciate, like so many other things she tried to teach me). She was our best friend and my brothers and I will miss her dearly.
Marjorie is survived by her sons Eric and Calvin of Gettysburg, daugher Anita and son in law Dan, beloved grandson Nate (for whom she was known as Granny Crinkles at our house by all of us), sister in law Annie Lamb, nieces and nephews and their children …….
She was preceded in death by her husband of 51 yrs, Robert (Bob), her sister Betty and her brother Charles and
niece Roberta. Her parents Irene Cora Messer Lamb and Lyman Charles Lamb.
This obituary was originally published here.