Published: September 26, 2008 11:47 pm         

Grandparents Day founder dies at 91

America’s grandparents have lost a loyal friend in West Virginia, the very woman who championed a cause that gained them national recognition with a special day three decades ago.

Marian Lucille Herndon McQuade died Friday at Hilltop Center, a short drive from the green-and-white road signs on U.S. 19 outside Oak Hill that honor the woman who inspired Congress and President Jimmy Carter to set aside the first Sunday after Labor Day as Grandparents Day. She was 91.

For more than three years, she made her pitch initially to the West Virginia Legislature, and succeeded in 1973 when Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr. proclaimed the special day.

Not content to let it rest there, McQuade began to lobby for a national observance and found ready friends in Sen. Robert C. Byrd, and the late Sen. Jennings Randolph.

“The people of West Virginia have always taken great pride in our devotion to our families and heritage,” Byrd said Friday.

“And the people of West Virginia can take great pride in Mrs. McQuade. She not only focused national attention on the need to create this very special day. She demonstrated that in our great republic, one person can make a difference.”

Congress approved a joint resolution in July 1978 for National Grandparents Day, and two months later, Carter signed it as Public Law 96-62.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she recalled thinking, when a Carter aide called her from the White House with the news.

Byrd said he was “saddened” to learn of Mrs. McQuade’s passing.

America first formally recognized Grandparents Day in 1979, and 10 years later, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 10th anniversary commemorative envelope bearing Mrs. McQuade’s likeness.

“Marian McQuade was a friendly face in Fayette County, who will be sorely missed,” Rep. Nick Rahall said.

“Marian recognized the important role grandparents can play in children’s lives, a role which, as a grandfather myself, I appreciate more and more each day. Through her work on the West Virginia Committee on Aging and the White House Conference on Aging, she was a leading advocate for the elderly and improved the lives of seniors across the nation.”

McQuade humbly referred to herself as “just a housewife,” but her indefatigable efforts led to a number of positive changes across the state. She and her late husband, Joe, produced 15 children. She was vice-chair of the West Virginia Commission on Aging, a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging, president of the Vocational Rehabilitation Foundation, vice president of the Nursing Home Licensing Board.

In an interview with “Wild Wonderful West Virginia,” she recalled accompanying her grandmother when she paid visits to the elderly after putting in a day on the farm.

“I never forgot talking with those delightful people,” she told the magazine. “That’s where my love and respect for oldsters started.”

Back in 1958, she was among 10 women who met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower and personally asked him to provide higher education opportunities for America’s children.

“The president asked me how many children I had,” she said. “When I told him, his mouth dropped open. It took him several moments to recover and answer my question.”

Before moving into a nursing home herself, McQuade made visits to such facilities and hospitals a major part of her activities late in life.

In the mid-1950s, she worked with Jim Comstock, late founder-publisher of The West Virginia Hillbilly, in forming a Past 80 Party, an annual celebration in Richwood for seniors in West Virginia.

Visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at Tyree Funeral Home in Oak Hill. The service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Oak Hill Baptist Church with Rev. David Sneed and Pastor Jerry Bush officiating. Burial will be at High Lawn Memorial Park in Oak Hill.

Donations of sympathy may be made to the West Virginia Alzheimer’s Association, 1111 Lee St., Charleston, 25301. To honor her further, the family asks that friends pass family histories on to their grandchildren, visit with the elderly, or volunteer at a nursing home.

In that respect, the family said in a statement, Marian McQuade’s observation would be to live on, “Make every day Grandparents Day.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com