Virginia Reynolds Marston, 97, wife of the late Perley Marston, passed away on her husband’s birthday, October 21, 2010 in the Lafayette Skilled Nursing Center in Marblehead.

One of four children of Andrew J. and Ethel (Wilson) Reynolds, she was born on July 15, 1913. She graduated from the old Lynn English High School during its final year, and attended the first post-graduate year at the new Lynn English High School.  She met the love of her life Perley E. Marston when she was fifteen, and he patiently waited until she grew up and asked her father for her hand in marriage.  They wed when she was twenty five years old. They lived at 25 Salem Street for seven years before the surprise early arrival of premature twins Bruce and Bethany.  Her twins weighed two and three pounds respectively, and would not have even survived infancy but for the efforts of their unusual mother.  Virginia had her own little neonatal facility right at 25 Salem Street, not allowing visitors to enter the room without masks until the twins reached ten pounds at eight months of age. 

She worked in exciting Lynn offices for such professionals as Elmer Fall and Guy Newhall, with whom she remained friends for years following the birth of her children. She ran a small insurance agency from her home, and she and Perley owned and operated the Virginia Marston Card and Candy Shop on Humphrey Street in Swampscott for a number of years.

She leaves her children Bruce Marston and his wife Joyce Evans of Passumsic, Vermont, Beth Latham, widow of Robert A. Latham of Marblehead, grandchildren Shaun and Dale Marston, Tara Latham and Terry Holt, Dawn, Kim and Jason Evans, and great-grandchildren, Stacia and Christina Marston, Shannon  and Alden Latham, Kelsey, Laurel and Andrew Holt, Ashlyn Evans, Taylor Tetreault and Andrew and Kenady Dorr. She was preceded in death by her brothers Lawrence and Robert, and her sister Marjorie Earp all formerly of Lynn.

Her funeral service will be held at noon, Friday October 29 in the Swampscott Cemetery, Essex Street, Swampscott.  Family and friends are respectfully welcomed. Arrangements are by the Whittier-Porter Funeral Home of Ipswich.