Beatrice Hardcastle Magruder

Beatrice Hardcastle (Lowell) Magruder (95) of Barnstable, MA, formerly of Wilmington, Delaware, died at home September 28, 2013. She was the wife of the late Lloyd Burns Magruder and the daughter of the late Alfred Putnam Lowell and Catherine Bowles Lowell. She is survived by her daughters Mary Blue Magruder of Cambridge and Sarah Beall Magruder of Barnstable and their husbands John Hurwitch and Michael Wardman, and by her daughter-in-law Elizabeth Clarke Magruder of Newton, widow of her son Samuel Hay Savage Magruder, and four grandchildren, William Wallace Burns Magruder, Elizabeth Beane Magruder, Abigail Lowell Magruder, and Edward Hardcastle Hurwitch. Her second son George Lloyd Magruder predeceased her in 1981. She is also survived by her sister, Christina Lowell Brazelton, and her husband Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, of Cambridge, and numerous nieces, nephews and their children and grandchildren. Her sister Frances Lowell Hunsaker died in 2011.

Beatrice was raised in Boston on Mt. Vernon St. and attended the Brimmer School, and graduated from Beaver in 1937, where she was class president for 5 years. She married Burns Magruder in 1941, just before Pearl Harbor, and followed his DuPont career to Maryland, Detroit, Buffalo, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware. She was a devoted mother to her four children. During their 20 years in Wilmington, Beatrice was an active volunteer with Christ Church, where she served on the vestry, chaired the women's group, and helped tutor inner city children with the West Center Daycare Center. She loved to sew and knit and made almost all of her own clothes. She and Burns shared hobbies of gardening, classical music, and tennis, and were frequent winners of mixed doubles tournaments. She moved in 1983 to the house on Barnstable Harbor where she had spent every summer. In Barnstable, she was a member of St. Mary's, where she helped with the gardens and cooked for the homeless with the Miracle Kitchen. She belonged to Mass. Audubon, Dig & Delve Garden Club, Sturgis Library, and was a lifelong member of the Barnstable Yacht Club and the Colonial Dames. With her wit, prolific memory and a vocabulary honed from constant reading, she finished the NY Times Sunday puzzle, and could converse wisely on myriad subjects. She will be remembered for her humility, integrity, wise counsel, and for her courage in coping with adversity.

Friends and family are invited to a memorial service to be held Saturday, October 12 at 11:00 am at St. Mary's Church, 3055 Main St., Barnstable, 02630. Burial following will be private. In lieu of flowers, gifts in her memory may be sent to St. Mary's Outreach Committee to benefit the Miracle Kitchen or to the Mass Audubon Long Pasture Sanctuary, 345 Bone Hill Rd. Barnstable, MA 02637