Marjorie Bradford, writer and matriarch of her extended family including five children, eleven grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren died on April 10, 2018 at Ginger Cove, her home in Annapolis, Maryland. She was 93.
Marjorie was perhaps best known for her many short stories, one entitled “Her Virtue was on the Line. So was Mom” that was published by the Washington Post on May 12, 2008. But within her extended family she was known as a loving and caring mother and grandmother who inspired generosity and loyalty in her family. In 1946 she was the face of a Pond’s Cold Cream advertisement in the “Pond’s Society Beauties” series.
As an Air Force wife, she travelled extensively both in the United States and abroad. She spoke fluent Spanish, was well read, and was unbeatable in bridge.
Marjorie Bradford was born on August 2, 1924 in Bloomfield, New Jersey to William V. and Elisa I. Carolin. Her family, on her mother’s side, came from Guatemala and El Salvador and her grandfather, Enrique Invernizio, a Sorbonne-educated engineer from Genoa, Italy helped construct the Panama Canal and later build the opera house in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Marjorie won a scholarship to Vassar College from which she graduated in the war class of 1945. While at Vassar she met Richard Galt, a cadet at West Point, who she married in 1946. They had three daughters, Susan, Peggy and Judy. Tragically in 1953, Richard was killed at Eglin Air Force base in Florida testing the F-84F fighter jet.
Now a widow with three small children she later met Oscar (Brad) Bradford, an Air Force officer who had lost his wife to cancer. They married bringing into the family Brad’s son, Gil. Later Marjorie and Brad had their own child, Rex. Marjorie oversaw this extended family, now numbering five young children. They lived in Libya, Maryland, Colombia, and Panama where Brad had been assigned.
In later years, Marjorie returned to Annapolis working for Arthur Anderson in Washington, D.C. and staying close to her children and now her grandchildren. In 2004 she moved to Ginger Cove where she was actively involved in line dancing, cheerleading, writing, and bridge and where she continued to support her beloved Vassar College.
Marjorie embraced life. As one of her daughters wrote of a photo when Marjorie was in her twenties, "You can see in her young eyes how she would grab life and shake it for all it was worth."
A Celebration of Life will be held in Fellowship Hall at Ginger Cove at 11AM on May 12, 2018. She will be interred at the United States Military Academy, in West Point, New York, next to Richard Galt.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 6 Herndon Avenue, Annapolis, MD 21403.
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