Marion Dorothy Horton passed away in her 94th year at Thirwood Place in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, on April 14, 2022. On the Cape many knew her from her many years volunteering at Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster. Or maybe as the lady who owned the house with the purple door at the top of the hill above Sea Street Beach in East Dennis. Or because her family had lived there or had been summer residents since the 1930s.
Marion was born in Middleborough on June 3, 1928, a daughter of A. Russell and Irene Mack of Easton and Brockton. She was a 1946 graduate of Roslindale High School, and a 1982 graduate of Wheaton College, where she earned a BA degree in Art History. After high school, she attended the School of Practical Art in Boston, which is now the Art Institute of Boston.
She married Richard Horton in 1948, and they raised five children in Mansfield, where she lived for about 42 years. In 1992, she built a home in East Dennis, which she shared with her second husband, Gene Horton, whom she married in 1994. Her home was on property that her father had purchased when Sea Street was just a dirt track. In 2020 she reluctantly left this home and a place she loved to reside at Thirwood Place.
In high school she was known for her talent as a singer, performing as a member of a trio and as a soloist. In her adult years she performed in local operettas and sang with her church choir at the Congregational Church in Mansfield. She passed on a love of music to her family.
She said that painting had always been a major part of her life. When her children were younger, she used her creative talents to provide classes for her church, the local Girl Scouts, and the community. As her family grew, she was able to spend more time painting. She briefly taught art at the public schools in Mansfield.
While raising a family in Mansfield, she volunteered as a Girl Scout leader and a Cub Scout den mother, was active in her church and with local service organizations. Later she worked as the public library’s Children’s Librarian, at a daycare center and preschool, and as a teacher’s aide for special needs children. While attending Wheaton College, she was Assistant to the Curator of Watson Art Gallery at the college, and later was curator of Brockton Art Museum.
Gardening was another of her joys, growing vegetables, flowers, and herbs. For about fourteen years she ran “Lady’s Herb Barn” from her home on South Main Street in Mansfield, and she taught “The Lore and Legend of Herbs,” held classes in the barn, sold dried arrangements, and worked in adult education. In 2000, Marion was certified as a Master Gardener. She volunteered for many years at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster, where she founded “Dot’s Plant Cart” and raised money to benefit programs at the museum.
As a young woman she was fun-loving and sometimes mischievous, enjoying her friends and family, and helping others with her generosity. Her family remembers the talents that others saw but they also remember great meals and treats they enjoyed together. The doors of her home were rarely locked, and friends regularly stopped to talk over coffee.
With her art, her cooking, her music, and her gardening, she brought much beauty to this world.
Marion was the second of three Mack family sisters. Her elder sister Arlene Towle passed away in 2010, and her younger sister Millie Ericson recently passed away in 2021. Marion’s husband Gene Horton died in 2017, and Richard Horton in 2015. She is survived by her five children, David Horton (Carol) of Mount Joy, Pennsylvania; Jeffrey Horton (Alice Jenkins) of Pawtucket, Rhode Island; Priscilla Simon (Richard) of South Yarmouth; Carolyn Cass (Michael) of West Hartford, Connecticut; and Elizabeth Jones (Steve) of Allen, Texas; by 10 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren; and by a niece and 5 nephews.
Her family will have a memorial service during the summer.
Memorials may be made to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History.