Besides shopping, Marge enjoyed her family and presided as the cook over many a family get-together. Her bread and rice puddings were special favorites.
Marge knew something about families, having been the oldest of the 11 children of Daniel and Alice Sullivan. She lived her early childhood in Elfreth's Alley, the historic 300-year-old street in Old City. When she was 5 or 6, the family moved to Fishtown.
"Her family was her life," said her granddaughter Francine Wenek. "She was a typical feisty Irish woman. She didn't hold her tongue."
Marge was educated at Holy Name of Jesus Parochial School. For many years, she worked for the old Jack Frost Sugar Refinery on the Delaware River in Fishtown, now the SugarHouse Casino.
She would regale her grandchildren with tales of the giant rats that came to eat the sugar. In fact, Marge was full of stories about the old days, and would keep the grandkids and great-grandkids entertained with her accounts of growing up in the city.
She married John McDermott, a truck driver, on June 7, 1938. He died in 1982.
Marge was a devout Catholic and when she wasn't able to make it to church, she would watch Sunday Mass on television, saying her Rosary. She was a dedicated supporter of St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
She was proud of the fact that she was one of the first people to walk across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, then called the Delaware River Bridge, when it opened on July 1, 1926.
A highlight of Marge's recent life was attendance at the wedding of her granddaughter Danielle to Brian Parks on Nov. 10 at St. Laurentius Church in Fishtown.
She is survived by two daughters, Margaret Marquis and Linnea Arcinese; a son, John McDermott Jr.; eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by another son, Harry McDermott.
Services: Funeral Mass 10 a.m. Thursday at Holy Name of Jesus Church, Berks and Gaul streets. Friends may call at 9 a.m. at the McElvarr Funeral Home, E. 1415 Susquehanna Ave.
