Obituary of Marjorie Louise Cronin

Marjorie “Midge” Louise (Knight) Cronin. March 18, 1928 - August 26, 2024. Marjorie, Mum, Mummy, Grammie, Gram, “Hunou”, “Huff” passed peacefully and gracefully from this earth, the same way she lived her 96 years: on her own terms. Her own way. A true pioneer. Midge lived a life of conviction, service, and community. A life of uncompromising rock-solid values. Always, always, always, piloted by the steadfast, unwavering love for her family.

Midge was born on March 18, 1928, eight years after women were guaranteed the right to vote. She lived through and was molded by The Great Depression. It was in part where she learned the value of hard work, perseverance, and dedication to purpose. She witnessed our country falter, climb again to its feet, change, and prosper. She knew how to go on. Over her 96 years on earth, she saw the world change in both unthinkable and extraordinary ways. She endured the mighty sacrifices of her generation, the Greatest Generation. They instilled in her a profound sense of duty, courage, and unfaltering determination. She grew up, “without 2 nickels to rub together” and she made certain her children knew the “value of a dollar,” instilling them with the knowledge that you could “take home more in a teaspoon than you could carry home in a shovel.” She truly lived the lesson that there is no substitute for hard work and no challenge you can not meet head-on. She was a formidable force, a huge presence in a tiny body with more energy than the energizer bunny.

Marjorie “Midge” Midgie” Knight was born in Plymouth Massachusetts. She grew up with her family atop Mount Pleasant Street Hill in Plymouth. She was the third child of her beloved mother, Bertha Ellen Knight, and her adored father, Joseph Patrick Knight who owned an auto mechanics business in Plymouth.

Midge always maintained deep ties to Plymouth, where she first formed her enduring beliefs in the importance of community, character, friendship, and purpose. In this community she loved, she taught school, coached, led by example, and developed lifelong friendships that expanded from her own generation to their children’s generation and their children’s children. Throughout her long life, a walk through the town center with Midge was never quick, always bumping into one acquaintance after another with a story or a quick word - it was rare to find someone she had not coached in school, or taught to swim at Steven’s Field, or led in scouting or a fellow schoolmate, or touched in some way. Marjorie was the beloved wife of the late Attorney Phillip Sheridan Cronin of Kingston, Massachusetts. They were married June 13, 1959. After marrying the man of her dreams she moved to Kingston with him, where she focused all her abundant energy on raising 4 children and 4 huge Saint Bernard dogs-all named LEX. In characteristic style and vigor, she tirelessly excelled. In the 2 communities she loved: Plymouth and then Kingston she established strong and lasting roots for close to a century. Roots that reached across generations touching lives and nourishing souls through her friendship, her teaching, her coaching, her guidance and her service. Though her beloved husband died in 1984, she considered herself married to Phillip (her “better-half”/he thought the same) until the day she died. Together they raised 4 children: “2 boys and 2 girls” she would proudly chime like she planned it… and she probably did. Midge leaves her beloved family: her son Phillip Sheridan Cronin II, and his partner Chrissy McGillveary, of Plymouth, Mass; daughter Deborah Cronin Strymish and her husband David E. Strymish of Newton, Mass; daughter Jennifer Cronin DiRico and her husband Francis J. DiRico of Key Largo, FL; and son Christopher N. Cronin and his wife Jane Nagle Cronin of Kingston, Mass. She is survived by her 13 adoring grandchildren: Phillip, Robert, Ainsley and Hunter Cronin; Samuel and Nicholas Strymish; Sarah, Elizabeth, Katie and Emily DiRico; and William, Benjamin and Finn Cronin. She was infinitely proud of each and every one. She leaves her six beloved nieces and nephews with whom she was wonderfully close all her life. Throughout her life, Midge was a loving sister to her late siblings, Carlton Knight, Janice Knight Talmage, and Shirley Knight Brown. She remained close to her 3 siblings and their families throughout her life. Midge was the glue of family, friends, and generations.

Midge was an avid gardener and a tremendously excellent cook. Generations of family and friends assembled in her kitchens over the years to enjoy her tasty “doctored up” versions of traditional recipes. Her simple New England approach to local wholesome foods (usually involving ingredients she grew or foraged herself) garnered her national acclaim on the front pages of the New York Times Food section and also in a popular cookbook, THE NEW AMERICAN COOKING by Joan Nathan where she was featured for her Jenney Grist Mill Cranberry Cornbread. (Be sure to gently hand-cut each berry in half.) The New York Times photo captures her hunched over a cranberry bog, smiling broadly as she announced in her humble way with full-on New England accent, “I’m pretty plain ‘cook-ah’.”

Marjorie was a pioneer in women’s sports, a lifelong athlete and a masterful coach. She was the first woman inducted into the Plymouth High School Athletic Hall of Fame. She was a dedicated and talented athlete who competed on the elite national level with the Northeast Field Hockey team, as well as in every sport available to girls in the 1930’s and 1940’s. To train for her field hockey team Midge ran under the cover of night because she was told “girls don’t run.” Run she did. Midge had a strong body and an unshakable constitution. She was an exceptional role model for girls both on and off the field. When Midge was in third grade, she announced her ambition of becoming a “GYM TEACHER.” If she were dismayed to hear her teacher’s dismissal: “she couldn’t be a gym teacher because she was too small and she was a girl,” it only fueled her the more. True to her determined spirit, she defied the stated odds and became a Physical Education teacher and a coach. She went on to graduate (1942) from Bridgewater State Teacher’s College where she worked her way through college after the untimely death of her father during her freshman year. Though paying for college seemed insurmountable after her father’s death, quitting was never her style. She took a job on the side, graduated from college, and fulfilled her childhood ambition of becoming a “gym teacher”. She never forgot her roots and remained forever grateful to those who helped her achieve her goals. She expressed deep, lifelong gratitude for her professor and mentor Dr. Mary Jo Moriarty, whose support, inspiration, and vision helped Midge to continue college and achieve her important goals. In 1942, only 3.8 percent of women attended college. Midge was always a unique statistic.

Marjorie’s true vocation was teaching, in all its forms and in every forum, all the time and everywhere. She held an unshakable belief in the potential of youth and in the future. She had a long-range vision and a sense of purpose that extended far beyond herself. She invested herself in the youth who would build tomorrow. She taught school, sports, scouts, Sunday school, her children, and friends because she knew that her teaching would extend to future generations and she firmly believed it would help make the world a better place. Her optimism and hope for the future were evident in her life of service to others. This hope was also reflected in her comprehensive, sometimes befuddling, recycling system encompassing her back hall- where she fastidiously recycled everything in just “the right way.” If questioned on its complexity, she would reply, “Well I’m not doing this for myself or my entertainment, I’m going to be long gone.” In all ways, big and small, Midge’s life was one of selfless purpose.

Though it would never occur to Midge, she was in truth a renaissance person. She could whip up a traditional holiday dinner for 30 people, build a stone wall, rewire an appliance, lead an organization, build a backyard skating rink, and host a 100-person cocktail party with absolutely nothing catered (from the food and flowers to the ice cubes—which she turned out of trays for months in advance). She knew her way around a model A engine, and when she fired up her sewing machine—foot pedal whirring— she could turn out a prom dress and jacket overnight. She was busy and rarely sat but always had time to give kind support or thoughtful advice—even if it might not be exactly what you wanted to hear. She was an intrepid sea clammer, donning her wet suit and hitting Browns Bank up until her early 90’s. Hauling her mighty catch got a little more difficult in her later years and it’s rumored she even once accepted help (in her late 80’s) to drag her weighty clam bag back down Long Beach. She always fastidiously cleaned every last clam, transforming them into her legendary chowder and fritters for her family and friends. Summer after summer after summer.

After graduating college, Midge went on to teach in the North Attleboro school system and then the Plymouth systems, from 1942 to 1959 until she retired to start a family. She coached every girls’ sport at Plymouth High School where she offered girls lessons in life as well as instruction in sport. Unlike boy’s coaches back then, girls’ coaches were not paid. To assure her girls had the latest training, Midge would peek through the doors of the boys' gym to learn the latest techniques, then run back to teach her girls. Midge always did what was needed to get the job done. Summers she taught swimming at Steven’s Field. She taught most of Plymouth how to swim and she made sure everyone knew the breaststroke because back in the day the sewage emptied directly into Plymouth Harbor where it would float across the surface in an onshore wind. Always a pragmatist, Midge would give a stern whistle to alert everyone to keep swimming but kick into breaststroke and “keep heads above water!”

Every summer for close to 60 years Midge spent surrounded by her family and close friends at her much-loved Eel River Beach Club. She cherished her time with her ERBC friends and reveled in the generations of friendships. In her younger years, she strode up and down the pool officiating swim meets, handing our popsicles and cheering on the teams. She was tickled pink one year when she and her partner Linda Freedman surprisingly toppled the favorites and were crowned the club doubles champions. In her later years, there was little she enjoyed more than sitting on the tennis sidelines, chatting with lifelong friends of all ages, and cheering on her grandchildren.

Midge Cronin earned deep respect in the communities of Kingston and Plymouth for her seven decades of long-standing service, her upstanding character, her forthright opinions, and her courageous voice. She was never afraid to speak her mind. But her actions spoke even louder. She was a popular role model for all ages and a town leader serving on the Kingston School Committee and as Executive Director of the Local Girls Scouts and a scout leader (both Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts) for decades. She proudly led her scout troops, marching in every Memorial Day parade, and dedicated the day to placing flags on the graves of veterans and flowers on the graves of friends and family. She held deep reverence for the past and abundant hope for the future. She was so well-respected by the local St. Joseph Church authorities that she was the only protestant deemed worthy to teach Catholic CCD. She was a lifelong member of her beloved Church of the Pilgrimage in Plymouth Center. In the early 80’s Silver Lake High needed a field hockey coach so she hung up retirement to lead a new generation of athletes. She was a kind and attentive neighbor who taught her kids to shovel out fire hydrants and the walkways of elderly neighbors. She volunteered her time driving cancer patients to treatment in Boston. She never considered herself “too old” and she was never ever done teaching. There were always more to influence.

To Marjorie, who was so much to so many, her greatest role was motherhood. She approached it as the most excellent way to teach—to pass on what she had learned about how to live a life with grace, kindness and purpose pursuing the highest standards of truth and honor. She knew there was a proper way to live your life, the proper way to set a table, the proper way to honor a friend, the proper way to plant a garden, the proper way to respect yourself, to treat a neighbor, to cook a turkey and to love family and to serve a community. There was a proper way to treat others and a proper way to walk through this world, always putting your “best foot forward.” She leaves a legacy of goodness, honesty, and truth. One of the enduring and important legacies she leaves is “to believe in yourself” and “to stand on your own 2 feet.” And all the barely 5 feet of her walked that big, tall, walk every day of her life. Midge was a mighty presence and her legacy will endure in the multitude of family and friends she impacted throughout her long, beautiful, and purposeful life. On August 26, Marjorie passed from this earth, peacefully surrounded by her loving, adoring family. The salt-soaked ocean breeze, the East Wind—her favorite wind—streamed through the windows of her Ellisville home as she took her last earthly breath. Her beloved East Wind guided her home, ferrying Midge into the arms of Phillip—the true love of her life. Marjorie Louise Knight Cronin and Phillip, now reunited, dancing together across the oceans and into the heavens. Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, friend, cousin and teacher. Forever missed. Forever loved. Peace.

A memorial service honoring Marjorie Louise Knight Cronin will be held on Sunday, November 24, at 3 pm in the Church of the Pilgrimage. 8 Town Square Plymouth Massachusetts. A Celebration of her Life will follow at the Plymouth Yacht Club 34 Union Street Plymouth Massachusetts. All are invited. A scholarship fund will be sent up in Marjorie’s memory.