Marjorie C. Lewe (nee LeClerc), 94, a lifelong resident of Riverside, died on May 27, 2018.
Born on Aug. 21, 1923, she attended St. Mary School and met her future husband, John C. Lewe Jr., also a lifelong Riverside resident, at the Big Ball Park in Riverside the summer she graduated the eighth grade.
During high school, Ms. Lewe loved the stage and was in several plays. Afterwards, she worked at Continental Bank in the collections’ department until she married John on Sept. 6, 1944 while he was serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
Long active in the activities of St. Mary Church, she worked with young girls in the Junior Legion of Mary, was vice president of the Altar and Rosary Society, headed a three-year “Renew” program and helped at the rectory, first as a volunteer and later as a paid staff member.
Ms. Lewe joined the Riverside/North Riverside Covenant of Churches during its formative stages and remained a member. As such, she ran a successful Church World Service CROP Walk.
She also completed a two-year lay ministry program through the Archdiocese of Chicago and took a one-year Loyola practicum in chaplain training in hospitals.
Twenty-nine years ago, when several women from St. Mary’s were diagnosed with cancer at about the same time, Ms. Lewe helped form a support group through the Wellness Cancer Center in Hinsdale. She was also involved with PeopleCare Inc., a Riverside-based not-for-profit ecumenical agency which serves older adults, first as a volunteer and more recently as a paid part-time staff member.
Ms. Lewe also belonged to the Riverside Presbyterian Woman’s Group where she served as co-program chairman for four years and the Riverside Garden Club with whom she created a garden therapy program at the British Home and at the Scottish Home. Her activities also included the Riverside Township Players and a book club.
A big part of her volunteer activities had been with libraries, including the Loyola Hospital Chaplain’s Library and the Riverside Public Library, where she served for a year as the program chairman for the Friends of the Library.
In 2005, she was named Riverside’s Person of the Year. Marjorie lived through tremendous world changes from the ice man bringing the block of ice for the refrigerator, to getting her first computer and finally, one week before her passing, watching her granddaughter’s wedding via Skype.
She was the mother of Kathleen (Steve Feary), John III (Peggy), Timothy (Kris) and Marjory (Earl Brady); the grandmother of Laura (Joe) Mantello, Michael (Lynne) and Mark (Michelle) Feary, John Charles IV (Rachel), Brandon (Ann) and Christopher Lewe, Andrew, Samantha (Jeff) Pitrak and Ian Brady; the great-grandmother of Sumner, Lane, Kate, Owen and Easton; and the sister of Yvonne Faster and the late Rita Rutz and late Donald LeClerc.
Funeral services have been held. Memorial contributions are appreciated by the family to the American Cancer Society or to the Riverside Public Library.
Ivins/Moravecek Funeral Home, Riverside, handled the arrangements.
