Marguerite Smaldone-Payne Thursby

Marguerite Thursby departed this earth on Monday, May 3rd at 6:30am. Daughter, sister, English teacher, clothing designer, mother, grandmother, she is survived by her son, Rodger, her grandson, James, her sister, Lolita, her brother, David, and cousins, students, and sundry friends too numerous to even begin to list.

Born Marguerita Smaldone at home in Covington, Kentucky on February 27th, 1931, she graduated from the University of Florida in 1953 as a member of only the fifth class to accept women. She next taught English for ten years in Florida's public school system, rising to the position of department chair at Cocoa High School while also earning her master's degree.

She then moved to Hong Kong to marry Geoffrey Thursvy, a foreign correspondent with the London Daily Express, who she met when he was covering the Alan Shepherd space shot at Cape Kennedy. In Hong Kong she established the House of Marguerite Thursby as its signature Marguerite Thursby Designer Room as its principle fashion designer. A fashion article in the October 14, 1990 edition of the South China Morning Post noted that as early as 1971, American fashion writers were placing her among the world's top 10 couturiers, which "put her in the company of Yves Saint Laurent, Cardin, and Dior's Marc Bohan."

After her husband Geoffrey's passing, she moved to Honolulu, where she returned to her life as a teacher, tutoring and working with special education students for Responsive Caregivers Hawaii. She also found the time and energy to work as a promoter and fundraiser for the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra.

Three years ago she returned to Winter Park, where she grew up and where she graduated as valedictorian from the Winter Park High School.

As Prospero observes in The Tempest, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on." The dreams on which she based her life were the dreams of a teacher, a teacher who inspired dreams in her students. Her life was made so much larger by what she meant to those students, and what those students meant to her. She opened minds and she also opened hearts, two of the greatest gifts a teacher can give.

Now, Miss Payne to your students, as you sleep the sleep whose bounds we know not, may you continue to dream, and may Shakespeare's flights of angels forever surround you.

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