Marian Chase

Marian Louise "Boots" Bower Badgley Chase, 81, died peacefully surrounded by her family on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at Twin Lakes Community Memory Care, Burlington, NC. She was born June 27, 1929 in Hackensack, NJ as the youngest child of the late Justus Hugo Bower and Anna Sarah Plastow Bower. She was preceded in death by her first husband, John Durward "Bud" Badgley, her sister Ruth Buckingham Bower Connor and husband Jack, and her brother Frank Hugo Bower and wife Barbara. She is survived by her husband of nearly 14 years, Rodney Southwick Chase of Twin Lakes Memory Care, Burlington, NC as well as her four daughters Nancy Katherine Badgley Jones and husband Gordon of Charlotte, NC, Sally Aileen Badgley Dolch and husband Ron of Allen, MD, Amy Jeanne Badgley Macumber and husband Michael of Kernersville, NC, Laurie Susan Badgley McCormick and husband Pat of Matthews, NC, and her son Mark Stephen Badgley and wife Jan of Devon, PA, her fifteen grandchildren, her six great-grandchildren, her eight nieces and nephews, her sister-in-law Caroline Katherine Badgley Clark of Hot Springs, AR, her five step-children and her five step-grandchildren. Boots graduated in 1950 from the New Jersey College for Women, now Douglass Residental College, Rutgers University with a BA in economics. She worked as a retail salesperson and as a substitute teacher over the years, but her most important work was raising her five children. Living in Missouri, New Jersey, Toronto, Canada, Ohio and North Carolina, Boots always involved herself in her communities. She was a member of the University Women's Club, Questors and the PTA as well as a Girl Scout leader and a Sunday school teacher. She volunteered at Flower Memorial Hospital in Sylvania, Ohio and at Central Carolina Hospital in Sanford, NC. She was a docent for the NC Museum of Art. She had a flair for writing expressed in countless letters to family and friends and in a feature column for the Carolina Trace newsletter, "Trace Talks." Boots was a member of First United Methodist Church of Elon where she and Rod sang in the choir. An expert at needlework, sewing and knitting, Boots also enjoyed tennis, golf, skiing, bridge, flower gardening and travel across the United States, Canada and Europe. A celebration of her life is planned for Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 10 AM in Twin Lakes Community Foley Chapel, Burlington, NC. The Reverend Dr. Sally Dolch will officiate. The Reverend Fr. Mark Menees, Twin Lakes Chaplain, as well as Boots' children and stepchildren will participate in the service. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Joseph & Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, 2200 W. Main St., Suite A200, Durham, NC 27705. Boots' family wishes to express its heartfelt gratitude to every staff member at Twin Lakes Community, especially in Memory Care, for their kindness, concern, and dedication to a woman who was and always will be a cherished wife, mother and grandmother.