“If the table was set for seven, and somebody came to the door, they would always add a place setting,” recalled her daughter Patti. “One night we got a knock on the door during a snowstorm and there was a guy on a motorbike who was freezing. We brought him in and made a meal for him.”
Another daughter, Mary Lou, added: “She had many adopted daughters.”
Marie died Friday, April 19, at her Atlanta home after a short illness. She was 102.
She was born Oct. 27, 1921 in Irvington, N.Y., the daughter of Maurice and Josephine Bouvier. She was a graduate of Irvington’s Main Street School and attended Barnard College.
During World War II, she worked for General Motors in Tarrytown, N.Y., and for the National Postal Meter Co., a munitions maker in Rochester.
Marie married George J. Featherstone Jr., who served as a captain with the U.S. Army Air Corps, on Sept. 14, 1946.
George was a mining engineer and the Featherstones lived in several cities, including one of Marie’s favorites, Ligonier, Pa. They settled in Bluefield, W.Va., in 1959, where they lived until moving to Florida in 2004.
Marie loved the outdoors, especially flower gardening, nature walks and bird watching. She enjoyed making jewelry and was an avid bridge player, spending many hours playing cards and bingo with friends at the Renaissance, her home in Atlanta since 2009. Marie also gave generously to Native American missions.
Marie took great interest in her husband’s career and was past president and scholarship chair with the Women’s Auxiliary to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, or WAAIME. She traveled extensively throughout the United States, and in Europe and China.
One of her favorite vacation spots was Sunset Beach, N.C.; she spent time there nearly every summer since the 1970s. She celebrated her 100th birthday there with family and friends in 2021.
Although her hobbies and interests were many and varied, her primary devotion was to her family. When her husband died in 2014, Marie continued living at the Renaissance. She loved visits from her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, playing games and ruling as matriarch with a gentle, loving hand (often holding a glass of red wine) at family gatherings.
She also will be remembered for her keen wit and sense of humor, delivering one-liners to the delight of family and friends. Her daughter, Patti, recounted the first time she traveled with her mother in the first class section of an airliner. While waiting for takeoff Marie was served a glass of wine, but once the jet was in the air, the captain announced that no drinks would be served in the main cabin because bumpy air was expected. “Remind me never to sit back there,” Marie said.
Her kindness and generous spirit were rewarded by the love she received from her family. No one was more devoted than Patti and husband Michael. Patti visited daily to play cards and chat, and Michael brought her home for dinner at least once a week, keeping her well fed with his wonderful meals and laughing with his jokes. Together with loving caretakers Gail Stanley and Marva Sinclair, they made sure Marie had plenty to do.
She is survived by a son, George J. Featherstone III of Cincinnati, Ohio; three daughters, Theresa DePiper (Geret) of Charleston, S.C.; Patricia Corcoran (Michael) of Atlanta, and Mary Lou Hofmeister (David) of Amelia, Ohio; a sister, Adrienne Cutignola, of White Plains, N.Y.; eight grandchildren, Geret DePiper (Jill) of Falmouth, Mass., John DePiper (Laura) of Brooklyn, N.Y., Danielle Wilson (David), Michael Benzow (Blanca) and Chad Benzow (Amanda) of Atlanta; Kate Hofmeister, of Cincinnati, Kenny Hofmeister, of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Daniel Hofmeister, of Newport, Ky. and six great-grandchildren, Leah DePiper, Audrey DePiper, Ethan Benzow, Zoey Benzow, Maxwell DePiper and Rhett Wilson.
She was preceded in death by a brother, Louis, and sister, Camille, her daughter, Susan Lee Benzow, and husband, George.
Visitation will begin at noon Saturday, April 27, at H.M. Patterson & Son-Oglethorpe Hill Chapel, 4450 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 2 p.m. at the Cathedral of Christ the King, 2699 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta.
She will be buried Thursday, May 2, next to her husband at the Georgia National Cemetery, Canton, Ga.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Women’s Auxiliary to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, West Virginia Southern Chapter, c/o Susan Harwood, 1020 W. Spiller St., Wytheville, Va., 24382, or to a charity of one’s choice.
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