Marcella M. MacLeod

MacLEOD MARCELLA MacLEOD (Age 85) Died peacefully at home in Fairfield, CT on August 7, 2013. A librarian and the wife of a CIA agent, she was an Arlington, Virginia resident for 46 years before relocating after her husband's death in 2008. She was able to die at home because of the long-term care provided by her daughter Vicky, a licensed clinical social worker, and her son-in-law Drew DeSarno. The cause was lung cancer. Marcy was born in Kingston, NY on November 22, 1927, and was the youngest of five children. The daughter of an Irish-American carpenter, she became the valedictorian of Hunter-Tannersville High-School and went on to Barnard College, where she majored in history and discovered her love of the Middle Ages. There she met and married the jovial Duncan MacLeod, who was studying at Columbia University on the G.I. bill. On their honeymoon in Italy in 1950, they were offered State Department jobs and ended up living in Naples and Genoa for the first 6 years of their marriage. There she skied in the Alps, learned how to make a great spaghetti sauce, and met lifelong friends, many of who also settled in the Washington area. Marcy and Duncan went on to work for the Department of Displaced Persons in Italy and then spent a year in Turkey working at a military base alongside Frances Gary Powers, the pilot who was later shot down over Russia. She had a gift for organization and was a natural librarian, first at Barnard, and then in Italy, where she established a library for the post-war refugees on language, culture and religion. She worked for many years as a librarian in the AV department of the Central Public Library in Arlington, in order to send her three daughters to college, and then to graduate school. She placed a high premium on education and was a lover of the arts. A talented pianist herself, she was passionate about classical music, and regularly breakfasted to the sounds of Washington, D.C.'s classical music station WETA. Her daughter Heather became a cellist and her daughter Wendy is a playwright largely because Marcy was a devoted subscriber to Arena Stage. Marcy followed her three daughters' careers assiduously, skillfully archiving them in the family file cabinet. Marcy married her Protestant husband against her Catholic family's wishes, but later returned to the Church, attending St. Ann's Church in Arlington. She loved crossword and jigsaw puzzles, and had her own sly, soft-spoken brand of humor. (Her husband used to say of her: "Happy's the man who marries a woman with a quiet voice.") From childhood she had a profound love of animals, and the canine love of her life was a Golden Retriever named Maeve. In her final illness she was comforted by the loyal companionship of her cats Tabby and Tosti. She is survived by her three daughters, Heather MacLeod, Wendy MacLeod and Vicky DeSarno; and by her four grandchildren, Martha and Shelby Rink, Foss and Avery Baldwin. The funeral service will be held at Murphy's Funeral Home in Arlington at 5 p.m. on Sunday, August 18, with visiting hours from 3 to 5 p.m. Memorial donations can be made in her name to the: ASPCA (https://www.aspca.org/secure/memorial) or to WETA (http://www.weta.org/support/waystogive" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.weta.org/support/waystogive) (http://www.weta.org/support/waystogive)