Duxbury, MA -- Madeline Lamson MacDonald Turner, 100, died peacefully in her sleep on April 2nd at Bay Path Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, having lived previously at the Village at Duxbury for seventeen years and in Abington for fifty-six years. Born in Waltham, she was raised in Norwell from the age of six by her adoptive parents, Nellie and Robert MacDonald. Following graduation from Norwell High School and Atherton Hall secretarial school, she lived in Boston at the YWCA and worked at the Not-A-Seed Raisin Company on Rowes Wharf until her 1938 marriage to her late husband, Lawrence M. Turner who predeceased her in 1969. She was a past deaconess of the United Church of Christ in Abington. As a descendant of both those who arrived in this country on the Mayflower and the indigenous native population, Madeline was truly an all-American woman.
Valuing her years as a homemaker, she turned to the arts in her eighties and nineties, crafting several sculptures, a number of paintings, and, from the inventiveness of her rich imagination, a portfolio of cartoons featuring the caricature, “GeBa", combining elements of music’s G and B clefs. Using another unique design symbol from one of her collages, she commissioned its inscription on her cemetery marker.
A keen observer and conversationalist regarding current events and politics, Madeline stopped reading the editorials in the Boston Globe in her last year because, as a life-long republican, she disagreed with its policy positions. While at the Village at Duxbury, she facilitated a sense of community among newer residents by inviting a rotational list of residents to join her weekly for stimulating dinner conversation.
Madeline is lovingly remembered by her son Curtis and his wife Dene of Rowley, MA; her son Kenneth and his wife Barbara of Charlotte, NC; her daughter Marilyn Taylor and her husband Harold of Plymouth, MA; her grandchildren: Tracy Carros and her husband Dennis of Charlotte, NC; Shannon Cannon and her husband Matt of Statesville, NC; Donna Gridley and her husband Thom of Newburyport, MA; Sarah Turner of Somerville, MA; and her great grandchildren: Chris, Cody, Jarrett and Payton Carros; Blake Cannon; and Ava and Lila Gridley. She was predeceased by her good friend Elbridge Atwood, formerly of Abington and the Village at Duxbury. In her eighties she learned of her brother, Albert Lamson and several half brothers and sisters, Grace Turner, Patricia Russo, Doris Hanlin, Wallace Jarvis and John Jarvis some of whom she met.
Arrangements: an interment gathering will be held at the First Parish Cemetery of Norwell on a future date. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made at www.jackwilliamswednesdayschild.com.