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Marie Verna Tarquini, 82, teacher, volunteer

Marie V. Tarquini

By Sally A. Downey and INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Posted: June 16, 2012

Marie Verna Tarquini, 82, formerly of Dresher, a teacher and community volunteer, died Thursday, June 7, of Alzheimer's disease at Artman Lutheran Home in Ambler.

The daughter of Italian immigrants, Mrs. Tarquini grew up in Roxborough and graduated from Roxborough High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in early-childhood education at Temple University as a scholarship student. At Temple, she met her future husband, Francis J. Tarquini. They married in 1952.

While raising four children in Ambler and Fort Washington, Mrs. Tarquini was a Brownie leader and was active with the Ambler Junior Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters. In the 1970s, she and other league members began the first recycling program in Upper Dublin Township, her daughter Mindy Tarquini-Cassell said.

Mrs. Tarquini was involved with the Montgomery County Association for Retarded Citizens as a volunteer, working with disabled children, and was eventually hired as a teacher there.

She spent almost 10 years with the association and was later a sales representative in the china department at Strawbridge & Clothier in Jenkintown. She loved entertaining and setting an elegant table, and was a member of a gourmet club, her daughter Kimberly McNamara said.

Mrs. Tarquini was involved in projects for the Colony Club in Ambler, a service organization for seniors.

She and her husband enjoyed the theater and were devoted bridge players. They were founding members of St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church in Maple Glen, established in 1963.

She was always willing to help out at a spaghetti dinner fund-raiser or the church fair, teach a catechism class, or chaperone a CYO dance, Tarquini-Cassell said.

She was respected for her "fine intellect, ready wit, and fair-minded attitude," Tarquini-Cassell said.

In addition to her daughters, Mrs. Tarquini is survived by sons Joseph, Vincent, and Frank; 10 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and a brother. Her husband died in 2008.

A Funeral Mass will be said at noon Friday, June 15, at St. Alphonsus Church, 33 Conwell Dr., Maple Glen. Friends may call from 11 a.m. Burial will be in SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Marple Township.

Donations may be made to Alzheimer's Association, 322 Eighth Ave., Seventh Floor, New York, N.Y. 10017.

Contact Sally A. Downey at 215-854-2913 or sdowney@phillynews.com.??