Marjorie Wakefield Vail McCone was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and revered Radnor Township school teacher and coach. She passed away on June 3, 2010, on her 66th wedding anniversary at the age of 91. A 52-year resident of Wayne, PA, she was a member of Central Baptist Church in Wayne for nearly as long and was strongly committed to making a difference in the lives of others. She is survived by her four sons Thomas, Scott, Douglas, and Robert and their families.

Marjorie was born on November 4, 1918, at Osteopathic Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. Raised in Ocean City, NJ, she was the daughter of a prominent doctor and humanitarian, Dr. Charles Herbert Vail, and her mother, Grace Evangeline Rowe Vail, an accomplished concert pianist. Dr. Vail was a deacon at St. Peter’s Methodist Church in Ocean City where the family attended services and was president of the local Kiwanis Club. The family was well-respected in the community.

Marge excelled in Ocean City schools and particularly in sports. She was a tremendous runner, tennis and basketball player. She was even selected to represent the United States in women’s track at the Olympics but could not participate due to the outbreak of World War II.

Marge had an older brother, Charles, who excelled academically and went on to attain a doctorate in engineering, eventually becoming Dean of Engineering at Duke University and, lastly, Dean at Georgia Tech. The family could only afford to send one child to college and he, being the man and the assumed future bread-winner, was the chosen one. Marge managed to gain her secondary education in a less conventional way.

One day while playing tennis, a member of the athletic department of Penn Hall College, a two-year school in Chambersburg, PA, began to watch her play. He saw her remarkable potential and after some negotiation he offered her a full-tuition tennis scholarship. She would only have to pay for books and housing. Marge accepted and in the fall of 1936 her college career began, working part time to pay for room and board.

Upon graduation from Penn Hall, Marge was offered a full-tuition scholarship to Oberlin College in Ohio where she also worked to pay for her room and board.

After graduation, Marge’s father felt that she could benefit from making a contribution to society by teaching in an economically-depressed area. Through the Methodist Church, he arranged a teaching position for her in rural Tennessee where she taught a variety of subjects to many grade levels of boys and girls in a one-room school house having no indoor plumbing. In the one year she taught (from 1940-1941), she must have made quite an impact on her students judging from the number of letters she would later receive from many of the boys overseas serving in the ensuing World War.

Marge’s brother, Charles, now prominently employed by General Electric, was able to use his influence to have the company locate one of its plants in the area where she was teaching. It became a major employer there for many years.

After a year in Tennessee, Marge took a teaching job at Moorestown Friends School in New Jersey, a job she would hold for many years. She lived and worked in a women’s dormitory and formed several friendships that would prove to last for the rest of her life. Moorestown Friends is a Quaker school and in the tradition of non-violence, Marge and some other teachers put themselves in harm’s way to protect Japanese-American farmers in Burlington County by staying with them for several nights to deter revenge attacks after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. This was truly a demonstration of her character and courage.

In the early 1940’s, Marjorie met Henry McCone at the Colonial Hotel in Cape May, NJ, where she was a waitress for the summer and he was the night clerk. He was also a Merchant Mariner and a conscientious objector to the war, an unpopular position in those days. To avoid being drafted, Henry signed onto one merchant ship after another managing to keep just one step ahead of the authorities. They finally caught up with him in California where he was arrested, taken by train cross-country to Philadelphia, and put on trial for draft evasion. He was convicted and sentenced to federal prison in Virginia.

Several times during his imprisonment, Marge would borrow a car to visit him in Virginia, much to the displeasure of her mother, Grace, a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Through all the adversity, their love remained strong. After several months, he was paroled to serve until 1945 as a merchant mariner supporting the war effort.

On June 3, 1944, Marge and Henry were married in the backyard of the family home on Wesley Road in Ocean City, NJ. They spent their honeymoon night at the Colonial Hotel in Cape May where it all began and the next day drove to Marcus Hook, PA, where Henry boarded a merchant ship and would not return for 18 months.

The war years apart were difficult and dangerous, but Marge and Henry persevered and by 1947 found themselves in the Tidewater area of Virginia where Henry taught history at Hampton Sidney College. Over the next two years, Marge gave birth to two sons, Thomas and Scott. A few years later, the young family moved to Washington, D.C., where Henry took a teaching job at Sidwell Friends School. By the mid-1950’s, two more sons, Douglas and Robert, had also been born.

While working hard to raise a family, Henry continued his studies toward a doctorate in American history at the University of Pennsylvania. Though he had finished all of his class work, the struggle to provide for a family of four kept him from completing his final dissertation. His willingness to sacrifice for his family was always paramount.

In the fall of 1958, Henry got a job teaching American history with the Radnor Township School District (PA). They bought a house on Poplar Avenue and moved the family to Wayne, PA. To help with the purchase, the seller extended the family a second loan, so it was clear that Marge would have to return to teaching in order to repay it. With the help of glowing recommendations from former employers, a forward-thinking school superintendent, Dr. John Rutter (who had been Henry’s previous superintendent in Virginia), and Principal George Mitchell, Marge was hired as a girls’ physical education teacher and coach at the Radnor Junior High School in Wayne, a position she would hold until her retirement in 1981.

In the summers, the McCone family would return to Ocean City where Henry was the tennis pro of the Ocean City Tennis Club and the family ran the business for the City of Ocean City until 1971.

As a 51-year member of Central Baptist Church in Wayne, PA, Marge dearly loved to sing soprano in the choir and music always played an integral part in the family. She also sang for many years with the Wayne Oratorio Society at the Wayne Presbyterian Church.

In the early 1960’s, Marjorie introduced the sport of lacrosse not only to Radnor but to the state of Pennsylvania. She also compiled the most consecutive wins of any coach in Radnor history going undefeated in hockey, basketball, and lacrosse for 13 straight years; a record no one has ever been able to match. Even after retirement, she continued to coach lacrosse for Radnor through the 1994 season.

Both Marge and Henry were great humanitarians opening their home several times over the years to several troubled teens; giving them a place to stay and a foundation of love, comfort and strength for survival and self-confidence. They did this willingly and with no compensation. All of them have gone on to live healthy, constructive, and contributing lives. One has even followed their example by taking in troubled youth in her community offering shelter and guidance. Marge and Henry’s selfless work lives on.

In her 35 years of service to Radnor Schools, Marge McCone was a beloved and revered teacher, coach, mentor, and friend to generations of young women who went on to be champion athletes, Olympians, and remarkable citizens because of the love and dedication she gave to each of them and to good sportsmanship.

Marge’s husband, Henry, died on June 25, 2005. Marge, herself, passed away on June 3, 2010. She is survived by four sons, Thomas, Scott, Douglas, and Robert, seven grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. A celebration of her life will be held at Central Baptist Church in Wayne, PA, on Saturday, August 7, 2010 (time 10:00 am). Even though she is gone, her enduring spirit will live on in all of us forever.