Inspiring actress, singer and former I&M publisher
Marie Giffin dies at 77
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
Known to many for her stage talent and lovely singing voice, Marie Giffin, former owner and publisher of the Inquirer and Mirror for 20 years, died peacefully in her sleep on Nantucket April 28, 2008. She was 77.

COURTESY NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOC.  Marie Giffin won acclaim for her role as Meg Brockie in the 1961 Theatre Workshop of Nantucket performance of "Brigadoon."

Born Florence Marie Ritchie on March 13, 1931 in Hillview, Ill., she grew up in Jacksonville, Ill. and studied liberal arts and voice at Jacksonville's MacMurray College. In the spring of 1950 at the age of 22, Thomas Giffin was in Air Force basic training at Lackland Air Base in San Antonio, Texas and became friends with Mrs. Giffin's cousin, who wrote her and said his pal Tom would enjoy receiving some mail. The two corresponded regularly after that.

When he was transferred to a base in Detroit, Tom took a bus to Jacksonville where Marie met him at the bus station. Every month following, Tom hitchhiked one weekend a month to see her, sleeping on her parents'sofa, until the couple married in Jacksonville on April 15, 1951. Tom's father, Norman Giffin, offered a 'Sconset cottage he inherited from his father, who built it, as a wedding gift and the young Giffins honeymooned here and decided to make Nantucket their home.

That summer and for a few more, Mrs. Giffin worked for Norman Giffin at Steamboat Wharf where she sold tickets for the ferry and mainland train. When Samuel Garrison, who ran the summer ticket office, opened his own travel agency she went to work for him. Though the Giffins tried moving their family to the west coast in 1961, that was not meant to be and when they returned to the island Mrs. Giffin began her employment with the Inquirer and Mirror in its front office.

"[She] polished up the handles so carefully [she] became the ruler of the Queen's Navy," said Tom Giffin, quoting a line from a song in the Gilbert and Sullivan musical "H.M.S. Pinafore."

Mrs. Giffin debuted as an actress in the 1957 Theatre Workshop of Nantucket production of "The Mikado" playing the part of Pitti-Sing. In 1961 she left audiences with lasting impressions from her portrayal of Meg Brockie in "Brigadoon," and was called "Saucy and comical" by one reviewer. Mrs. Giffin remained involved with the Theatre Workshop, both on stage and behind the scenes, from the 1950s until its venue, the Straight Wharf Theatre, was destroyed by fire in 1975.

That event was a particularly poignant experience for Mrs. Giffin, who wrote in her paper's next edition, "It was in the confines of the walls of Straight Wharf Theatre that lasting friendships were made. It was here that memories were born. It was here that the shy learned they had something to contribute. It was here that new talents were found."

Among her other involvements with the community, Mrs. Giffin was a dependable and pleasant volunteer assistant at the election polls for many years.

"She was a grand lady," said historian Robert Mooney. "She was a very versatile woman. She was a gallant lady and she did a lot of things on Nantucket."

Prior to becoming co-owner of the paper with her husband, Mrs. Giffin worked there under editor John F. Kelly. Aphoto in a file at the Nantucket Historical Association research library shows Mrs. Giffin accepting a New England Press Association first place award in 1966 for an advertising series using old photos and news items from 1917 issues of theI&Mto promote the Island Service and Fuel Company. The Giffins sold the paper to Ottaway Community Newspapers in 1990, but the product Mrs. Giffin passed on was very much of her own creation.

"She was really a pioneer for women in newspapering," said her daughter Marianne Stanton, current publisher of the I&M. "For 20 years she was publisher of the Inquirer and Mirrorand really took that stewardship seriously. She supported causes that weren't necessarily popular - zoning when it wasn't popular and the Land Bank. She was an extremely hard worker. She took the paper from an eightpage broadsheet to 96 pages at the time she died, and she cared about her employees."

Suzanne DeHeart, who joined the paper in 1976 as a reporter and was editor for the last six of her nine years there, recalled one special afternoon with Mrs. Giffin that has remained a fond memory.

"I was feeling overwhelmed and overworked one day and Marie said 'C'mon, get in the car.'I asked her where we were going and she said 'You'll see.'She took me to the Grossman's [in Polpis] to pick apples. We were there for about an hour and then we went back to the paper. It was exactly what I needed."

In her free time, Mrs. Giffin enjoyed her music, gardening, cooking and baking, and was known for her delicious apple pies.

Mrs. Giffin is survived by her husband of 57 years, Thomas H.C. Giffin of Nantucket; a sister, Mary Ann Birdsell and her husband Everett, of Jacksonville, Ill.; her daughter Marianne R. Stanton and sonin law John Stanton; her son James R. Giffin and daughter-in-law Corinne Giffin; grandchildren Andrea McDevitt Lamb and her husband Matthew, Heather Giffin, and Kevin and Caroline Stanton; and two greatgrandchildren, Hayley and Jackson Lamb, all of Nantucket. She also leaves several

nieces and nephews. I

Aservice will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 3 at the Methodist Church on Centre Street. Donations in Mrs. Giffin's memory may be made to Home Health Visiting Nurses, Nantucket Cottage Hospital, 57 Prospect St., Nantucket, Mass. 02554.