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| Marjorie holding a bird sculpture from Baffin Island (1972) |
One of my favorite friends and mentors, Marjorie Oberne, a person of rare insights and a spiritual guide. I met her in Atlanta in 1971 and she took me under her wing. She had wonderful small salon-like evenings, which she held in her large apartment located at 1599 Peachtree Street, which was affectionately dubbed "The Palace". She helped support me by allowing me to restore antique Tibetan Thangkas and also taught me the time consuming craft of restoration of Eskimo soapstone sculptures, which she imported from Baffin Island. These sculptures were easily damaged when mishandled. She was the first woman to go to Baffin Island and to support local indigenous artists. She was also an artist in her own wright. She was Canadian by birth and the niece of Robert Borden, Prime Minister of Canada 1911-1920. In her teens and early twenties Marjorie traveled round Europe. She met Jack Oberne aboard the Queen Mary on her return from England to America. They married in 1929.She had two daughters Penny and Mary, in her words "flip sides of the coin". Penny married a box manufacturer and moved to South Carolina while Mary left for India, where she lived the remainder of her life in Goa, mother of several children and friend of many wandering global Hippies. Marjorie took many trips to India herself and always had fascinating stories of her travels. I loved her very much and missed her greatly when she died. Her charm and candor and her probing mind were her most fascinating attributes and still many of the conversations we had echo in my memory. She would always say..."When you don't know what to do next....Follow the arrows...".