A sad loss

Mary Larkin Dugan and I had a lot of disagreements over the 25 years I knew her: to give just one example, I found her fondness for Maigret detective novels inexplicable. But all our sharp literary, political and cinematic differences were outweighed by the multitude of things we agreed on: our love of local history, words, amusing neighbors, and just about anything British (except for the BBC's production of "Brideshead Revisited"; I loved it, she didn't).
Mary died at Linden Hall on Monday, April 8, only a few weeks after she had been named to the Unionville High School Wall of Honor. She grew up in Marlborough Village, graduated from the Unionville schools and spent her career here teaching middle-school English while raising her four sons. After retiring, she founded the Kennett Underground Railroad Center, the Southeastern Chester County Historical Society and the East Marlborough Historical Commission, took part in a Shakespeare reading group, and had her own business researching the history of people's houses. She was even a fellow "Kennett Paper" columnist: she wrote the local history feature on p. 4.
Whenever I had a local history question, I'd send her an email and she'd either know the answer or find someone who did. She was a meticulous researcher, painstaking with the facts, and had no patience with historical embellishments -- woe to the person who got her started on the supposed "slave quilts"!
Last night a friend told me she stopped by to visit Mary two days before she died and Mary was sitting up in bed, typing away on her laptop.
From Day One Mary was one of the most loyal readers of this column (though she loathed my pen name). I could count on her to point out my many grammar errors ("further" vs. "farther" comes to mind); fortunately, she read my column before it went to press so I could correct them.
Her death is a loss not only for her family and friends but the whole community. As soon as word got out, friends and former students started posting on Facebook all kinds of fond memories and funny stories about her. I think my favorite was this one:
"She was my English teacher in 7th grade in 1978, and I borrowed a book and never returned it. A few years ago at the UHS farm show I saw her at a booth and said in my best hillbilly voice "Ain't you my old English teacher? Ain't nobody learned me English like you did." She hadn't seen me in over 30 years and she replied "Vincent, are you still enjoying Raymond Briggs books?"
Classic Mary. I can hear her saying that.
The night she died, a former student of hers, a former school colleague of hers and I raised a toast to her at The Whip. Rest in peace, Mary. I'll give George Simenon another try, just for you.