Marjorie (Margie, Mimi) Parmer Massie passed peacefully on March 28, 2016. She was born on April 1, April Fools' Day, in 1920 to Minnie Woodham Parmer and General Noah Parmer in Dothan, Alabama. She had nine brothers and sisters: Delphin, Henry, Edna Pearl, Porter, Joseph Davie, Florine, Jewel, Ruby, and John. She attended Dothan High School and earned her undergraduate degree from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. On September 3, 1942, in Washington, Florida at the age of 22 she married Burton Smith Massie. Her husband of nearly forty years was born on the Fourth of July making the two, as she would say, "a firecracker and an April fool." They were inseparable in marriage and had one child, Brenda Gail Massie, while living in Columbus, Ohio. The three later moved together to Darien, Connecticut, eventually settling in Warwick Neck, Rhode Island. Years after her husband passed, Margie moved to live with her daughter and helped to raise her two grandchildren, Amanda B. Parmer and Burton Curtis Massie, in Sea Cliff, New York, subsequently relocating with her family to Savannah and then Atlanta, Georgia.
Margie's quick, sharp, and sassy wit shone through every facet of her life: in the generous doling out of knowing winks one might encounter in a day, in her knee-jerk clap-back to careless slights, and in her overwhelming and explosive celebrations of the seemingly mundane. Throughout the many challenges she faced with her family she was unfailingly present in mind, body, and spirit wherein her confidence and conviction expanded contagiously offering a stoic support when it was most needed and always found waiting. Her mother, father, husband, and nine brothers and sisters preceded her in death. She is survived by her daughter and two grandchildren, as well as the many plant, animal, and human friends that were touched and uplifted by her time in this world. Though the absence of her enduringly joyous presence has left an unmendable gap and we miss her every day, it is in living with the marvel and curiosity she brought to the abundance of life that we keep her spirit alive.
She is buried beside her husband, Burton Smith Massie, in Quidnessett Memorial Cemetery, Kingston, Rhode Island.
