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Marjorie Marsie-Hazen, an educator, journalist, press officer, including being the first Public Relations Director of the then-newly restored Rose Hall Great House in the 1960s to 1970s, died on Monday, December 5, 2022. She was 98. She was born Marjorie Simmons on June 25, 1924, in New York City, to a Trinidadian father, Francis Assisi Simmons, and a Jamaican mother, Ivy Brown Simmons. She spent her early years in Montego Bay, Jamaica, where she attended Mount Alvernia Preparatory School and Montego Bay High School, then called Beaconsfield. Following high school, she returned to New York, where she graduated from Hunter College and attended Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism before dropping out to help pay for her younger sister’s college tuition. However, while in her mid-60s she completed a Master’s degree in Communications from New York University. Marjorie was the first wife of late former Ethiopian diplomat and United Nations delegate, Woobishet Marsie-Hazen, and was a longtime resident at Bogue Heights, Montego Bay, Jamaica, for more than six decades. In her 20s, Ms. Marsie-Hazen kickstarted her journalism career in New York, as an editorial assistant with the former Women’s National News Service, and later served as a byline writer and reader editor at Seventeen Magazine. She later moved to Washington D.C. where she worked as a Press Officer at the Africa and Middle Eastern Desk for the United States Information Agency, a US State Department agency. It was while working in Washington, DC, that she met her late husband in 1953. Soon after, the Marsie-Hazens relocated to New York City, where her husband served as a Delegate to the United Nations representing Ethiopia. In 1959, she and her husband moved to Ethiopia with their three children – Getatchew, Desseta, and Yodit (Judy) – where they lived for three years, and survived a coup d’état against Emperor Haile Selassie on December 13, 1960. As a result of her husband and father-in-law’s positions in Emperor Haile Selassie’s regime, Marjorie had audiences with the Emperor and heads of state such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. While in Ethiopia Marjorie Marsie-Hazen worked at the Embassy of Ghana and as a Press Officer for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). As their marriage ended, Marjorie eventually left Ethiopia and moved back to the U.S. with her three children. She worked as a United Nations Press Officer with her colleague and Czech friend, Doris Ippen, in New York City in the 1960s and Geneva, Switzerland, in 1968. According to Yodit, due to the socio-political “turbulence” of the 1960s her mother soon decided to raise her and two other siblings in Jamaica and returned to Montego Bay in the mid-1960s where she worked as a freelance editor for the tourist publications, The Beacon and The Visitor, and where she taught at Montego Bay High School. Throughout her years living in Montego Bay Marjorie became a highly respected figure in the city. She was widely known to many friends, family members and even former students either as “Miss Marsie” or “Aunt Marge” said her daughter Yodit. “In fact, several former students from Marjorie’s volunteer teaching at Montego Bay High School (post retirement) remained very close to her and visited her well into her 80s and 90s.” “I have known Aunt Marge for 30 years … this phenomenal teacher of English who was extremely passionate [and impacted] the course of my life and profession.,” said Corysa Tenfah, a former student from Marjorie’s post-retirement, volunteer teaching stint. “She did not teach English, she lived English. It was her flair, her character, it was everything … she was always demonstrating, who she was, what she does and you would never miss a beat with her.” During the time when she worked at Rose Hall Great House, Marjorie ghost-wrote the narrative of the eponymously-titled coffee table book, “Rose Hall”, and also successfully organized a philanthropic Jazz concert series featuring the late, African-American jazz phenom, Duke Ellington in 1969. “[Aunt Marge] was one of the most intelligent black women that I have ever dealt with in my mother’s and [her] generation, “ says family friend, Wayne Lopez, “I used to just love speaking to her … she was like a breath of fresh air, with her resilience, with her Harlem Renaissance attitude to life …” Ann Bailey, fellow community activist, recalls: “… I met Auntie Marjorie 15 years ago, but she made such an impact on my life … I connected with her on a lot of the issues that she cared about … just helping Jamaica, helping young people, helping people of color, young people wherever they are.” “What she ground into us [her children] was that we had to value and respect people, regardless of their station in life; that it was also important to help others in whatever way possible, no matter how small the contribution or favor,” said Yodit. “Not surprisingly, my Mom volunteered with non-governmental organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, the Soroptimist Club, a local orphanage, and the Georgian Society well into her 80s. Equally as important she was broadminded and encouraged us to choose our friends wisely and according to our values, not popularity. She certainly was not ashamed of visiting and keeping in touch with her gay, male childhood friends. Nor did she take issue with Rastafarians reaching out to [us children] once they heard through the grapevine about our Ethiopian roots. All this was in a time when homophobia abounded tenfold in Jamaica and Rastafarians were still regarded as social outcasts in Jamaica, despite reggae’s rising popularity. For sure, our childhood and even lifetime friendships unapologetically spanned a wide cross-section of income, religion, politics, ethnicity, amongst other categories.” Corysa Tenfah, added: “Aunt Marge took every opportunity to reinforce what we ought to be learning. She took pride in investing in her students and so for many, many years after high school, I would never leave her side … She ignited and brought life everywhere she [went]. And it’s just outstanding that at her age, she still demonstrated love and compassion and it’s really an exciting journey that I have shared with her and the fact that she has actually molded my life… and it’s always been nice…how she [mentored] me, learning about Africa, Ethiopia, world history---all of that came from spending my time with Aunt Marge and it’s just been a blessing spending my time with Aunt Marge.” According to Yodit, Marjorie possessed a deep love for Jamaica but also lived for brief stints elsewhere, crisscrossing between New York, Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands, Port Richey, and Orlando, Florida, as she navigated commitments to helping her children, her orphaned nephews, and ill family members. In the prime of her life, she travelled throughout Europe as well as Ethiopia, Egypt and Eritrea, Africa. In her 80s, she visited the Vatican for Mother Theresa’s beatification and was interviewed on Indian television to give her thoughts on Mother Theresa. She also travelled in her 80s with her eldest daughter Desseta to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana, as well as Egypt, where she adventurously joined a safari and rode a camel respectively. During this last Egypt trip, she had the pleasure of meeting Fathia Nkrumah and Gamaal “Gorkeh” Nkrumah, the late wife and son of Kwame Nkrumah, the legendary, Pan-Africanist, first Prime Minister and President of Ghana. “When we were growing up in Jamaica, we did not have a lot of very close family members around us, but Mummy helped us connect to both our Montegonian and Ethiopian roots by recounting our distant past and recent family history and genealogy, describing the characters and personalities of long-deceased relatives and family friends. We knew the exact name of our slave ancestor, James Cotter, who bought himself out of slavery, as well as our abolitionist ancestor, Lowell Tuckey. We knew exactly where our long-gone, family land and houses used to be on the then waterfront of Fort Street in Montego Bay, as well as which family friends lived alongside the family house way before our existence. Mummy also regaled us with stories and memories from Ethiopia about family friends, passing the lions at the palace gate daily as well as the harrowing, not-so-pleasant coup d’état we survived in 1960.” Yodit Marsie-Hazen said her mother was not only an oral historian but completed an unpublished manuscript titled “African Names and Naming Ceremonies.” She also used her journalistic skills to entertain and update her friends through the “old school art of letter writing.” She stayed in touch with family and friends throughout four or more decades through lively, one- to two-page Round Robin letters which she typed on a Smith Corona typewriter, sans white-out! Glorene Perry shared, “I am sure as a community, and in particular our [Bogue Heights Homeowners’] Association, we have all benefitted from God’s Gift of Love and Service from our Sister Marjorie Marsie-Hazen. She served for many years as one of our [Association’s] Secretaries and gave excellent and caring service with her home being our meeting place for quite a while…Her varied services and contributions will be missed, but I am sure we are all thankful for the fertile seeds she sowed which will ensure continued bountiful harvests for years to come…” She is survived by her daughters, Desseta and Yodit (Judy) Marsie-Hazen; grandchildren, Yohannes, Rahel, Elsabet and Eleni Marsie-Hazen; great granddaughter, Elana Marsie-Hazen; nephews, Ronald, and Eugene Hanley, Paul Simmons, Kennard, and Nehassie DeCastro; nieces, Beverly Simmons, Joyce Hanley, and Monica Webb; grandnieces and nephews; stepchildren and step-grandchildren, and many cousins. She was predeceased by her former husband, Woobishet Marsie-Hazen, and son, Getatchew Marsie-Hazen, who died in 2002 and 2015 respectively. A Memorial Service will be held for Marjorie Marsie-Hazen on February 4, 2023 at 10.00 am EST at Anunciation Church, 1020 Montgomery Road, Altamonte Springs FL. 32714 (Stream YouTube Link: https://.youtu.be/rjewFAwl5YE ).
