Marjorie Hershey

Marjorie Hershey Reflecting on the style and grace of Marjorie Hershey, who passed away in Austin July 31, a friend of hers wrote: “I loved that woman the minute I laid eyes on her.” Marjorie Bern Larsen Hershey was a rarity in Texas — she had the breeding, home décor, and sometimes the air of American gentility. A distant relative of President James Monroe—and the Dr. Mudd who attended Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth—Marjorie grew up in Bethesda, Maryland and in an antebellum farmhouse called Belleville in verdant Virginia countryside. She lived and traveled in Europe for some years. But she remarked wittily on her rhythms of hanging out laundry in her back yard in Austin, and was always walking blocks for favored candidates in league with her friend, mentor, and Democratic precinct chairman, a union carpenter. Her often quoted role model was an aunt of old Southern school named Laura Bonifant. But Marjorie’s alter ego was Henrietta— for many years her nom de plume as Austin’s most acerbic and avidly read gossip columnist. Marge was educated in Bethesda, Washington, D.C., Paris, and Austin. She took her degree at the University of Texas in economics. She arrived in Austin in 1962 with a passion for literature, the music of Cole Porter and Bobby Short, and strongly held political persuasions. She was president of the Central Texas chapter of the ACLU. She taught English at the university, worked as a researcher and writer for comptrollers Bob Bullock and John Sharp, and for the River City Sun and Third Coast, delighted in the barbs and sallies that flowed from Henrietta’s semi-secret pen. One column began: “Q: What do you get when you combine Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, and the South Texas Nuclear Project? A: Two moneymakers and a dog.” Marge’s parties and Christmas Eve celebrations in her Brykerwood home were legendary. Her political champions included former Travis County commissioner John Milloy and Senator Gonzalo Barrientos. Among writers and reporters, her many friends included Billy Lee Brammer, author of Austin’s best-known novel The Gay Place. Brammer wrote a friend a letter in 1969, describing a party that struck him as long on disaffection and cynical poses, except for one: “Marge looking soulful and marvelously unpolluted.” Her Austin haunts moved from Scholz Beer Garten to the Raw Deals to the Texas Chili Parlor. With friends she regularly traveled to Chicago and she often returned to her beloved homes and family in Maryland and Virginia. Marjorie had severe health problems for forty years; even they were gist for her hooting, bawdy laugh. Hurtling toward the Mayo Clinic, she once raced through an airport in Rochester, New York, only to learn from a cabdriver that the famous hospital is in Rochester, Minnesota. Marjorie was a great beauty, fair-skinned in the extreme, appearing almost fragile. Yet late in her life she could be found in July heat hiking three miles up a rough trail of Turkey Creek with a friend and five dogs. She was generous and good-hearted and valiant in the past year’s fight. Austin has lost one of its all-time great characters: always a class act. Marjorie is survived by her son, Jeffrey Michael Hershey of Austin; her brother Eric Bonifant Larsen of Bethesda; and numerous cousins. She will be remembered Monday morning, at 11 a.m., at Weed Corley-Fish, 3125 N. Lamar. Another service will follow at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in her second home of Powhatan. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorials be sent to the Texas Nurses Foundation, 7600 Burnet Rd. #440, Austin 78757. Arrangements by Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 N. Lamar, Austin, TX 78705 (512) 452-8811. You may view memorials at www.wcfish.com.