In Memoriam

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The 'Daisy'

photo by Sandy Lindsay

Margery Runyan

In loving memory of our wonderful mother—a librarian, genealogist, philanthropist, world traveler, and lover of the arts--who summered every year in Southampton since 1944 with her husband, Richard Van Pelt Runyan (1918-1998), and her daughters, Malinda Marlay Runyan (1948-1987), Margery Hamilton Runyan, Anne Sisson Runyan, and Catherine Wing Runyan, and her granddaughters, Meredith Wynne Whapham and Olivia Wing Whapham. She so loved her over century-old beachfront cottage, playing bridge, golfing, bowling on the green, sunning on the beach, swimming in the lake, and watching countless sunsets with family and friends.

Margery as a debutante

She was a graduate of Smith College in Massachusetts (BA in Government, 1941) and Rowan University in New Jersey (Master’s in Library Science, 1971), served as an audio-visual librarian for the Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library until her retirement at age 71, and was President of the Cottage Association of Bethany Lutheran Retirement Village in Dayton, Ohio where she lived actively and independently for the past decade.

Her love of family history led her to membership and leadership in a host of genealogical societies, including the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, the Wing Family of America, the Dames and Barons of the Magna Charta, and the Knights of the Garter.

She travelled widely, studying in France on the eve of World War II and making subsequent trips to Europe, China, Russia, the Caribbean, and throughout the US and Canada on her own and with her children. Her favorite places were her family summer homes, Oak Point in the Thousand Islands near her ancestral home of Potsdam, New York where she spent some of her childhood, and The Daisy or Cottage 43 in Southampton where she spent 66 summers.

Her memories of those many summers appear in the 2008 “Memories of Cottage Life in Southampton.” She reminisces about the purchase of the cottage in 1944 by her husband’s parents who began coming here from Cincinnati in the 1930s, the long trip up as a new bride that same year, caring for her daughters who came later under the early primitive conditions of the cottage (such as one cold water tap!) but in the glory of Southampton’s beach where they played endlessly, the transformations of the cottage to brighten and modernize it made by her mother and mother-in-law, herself, and her children over the years, and the many enduring friendships she made here with neighbors and fellow bridge, golf, and bowling on the green partners.

Margery and her life-long friend, Jack Todd

Many of these people gathered in 2007 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the cottage and to hear her stories of it. Over those years, she lost her attorney husband, who so loved playing tennis, fishing, and swimming here, and one of her adult twin daughters, who also loved the cottage and growing up on the beach. Both of them are memorialized on a bench in front the cottage (as our mother will be) and through a tennis club cup. Other long-time friends and neighbors here of her generation have also recently passed. She had always been the memory-keeper, so she would want us to carry that on and to make new memories.

A Celebration of Life

In memory of our mother, we, her daughters Anne and Catherine, are hosting an informal gathering for family and friends to celebrate her life at our cottage (151 Lake Street) on July 2, 2011 beginning at 5:30pm for drinks, a catered buffet dinner, and a sunset toast. Those who knew our mother are welcome to take part in testimonials to her prior to dinner and can stay for the meal and sunset toast or simply drop in during any of the proceedings at which we will honor her love of life, contagious smile, and great compassion, curiosity, and courage—her “dream of life ebbing only from these waking shores.”

Those friends who cannot attend are welcome to make contributions to the Bruce County Museum in Southampton in her honor.

Always in our hearts, minds, and visions, and always at the cottage,

Her daughters Anne and Catherine

The following link is Ms. Runyan's official obituary as it appeared in the Dayton Daily News on April 10, 2011 and includes the guest book that friends can contribute to. Click Here

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Wednesday, June 29, 2011