For Marian Barclift, gratitude was a part of everyday life. She believed that finding and sharing joy would attract positivity into her life. The numerous friends, family, and coworkers who mourned her passing are evidence that it worked for her. She passed away on November 27th, 2009, the day after that year’s Thanksgiving.
Her Baltimore Sun obituary describes the success she had as a teacher at Pimlico Junior High School, where former principal Samuel R. Billups observed that “Marian had an awareness of students and their concerns, and she knew how to reach out to them and get them to put their best foot forward.”
The obituary described Barclift’s impactful career. From 1975 until her retirement in 1990, she worked as a guidance counselor at Western High School, where the National Honor Society was renamed the Marian H. Barclift National Honor Society chapter.
Barclift was also active in the Sharp Street United Methodist Church. She served as president of the Naylor Hughes Fellowship, a service group within the church that produced “Our Book of Favorite Recipes” in 1994. Marian contributed several healthful and low-calorie dishes to the cookbook.
Barclift’s Baltimore Sun obituary was a good source of information about her work life and her involvement at the church. But I have more to go on. Thanks to the Enoch Pratt Free Library African American Funeral Programs Collection, I know that Marian was “the baby” of five girls, the youngest daughter of a postal worker and a teacher, and that her father recited Paul Laurence Dunbar poetry to the little girl: “Little brown baby with sparkling eyes, come to your pappy and sit on his knee…” Fittingly sweet words spoken to a person who later “radiated warmth in her lifetime relationships with her family and friends.”
The funeral program collection was started in the 1970s, with some programs dating back to the 1960s. According to Meghan McCorkell, Chief of Communications at the Pratt Library, “The materials were gathered in various ways. African American genealogists who gave presentations at conferences and programs often discussed why funeral programs were so instrumental in providing family relationships. The community began sending or dropping off the programs as a way to preserve African American History. Once the word was out, programs would arrive in the mail or dropped off in person or left at the home of librarian Eva Slezak. Family members who had ties with a funeral home would also donate stacks of programs to the collection. Recently, customers will email copies of programs to the department.”
What has resulted is a detailed cache of information for a population whose genealogical resources are often limited due to past erasure and neglect.
“Some of the prominent Marylanders included in the collection are Howard Peters Rawlings, Bishop Frank M. Reid, Jr and Anna A. Curry, to name a few. We also have some programs that are not specific Marylanders but are from other states as well, including Rosa Parks and Toni Morrison,” McCorkell told me. More to my own interests, “the collection consists of African Americans from all walks of life.”
Readers know that I believe that it is people from all walks of life who make and shape history. Marian Barclift certainly did so when she impacted young lives as an educator, and when her church group compiled a cookbook. But its also nice to know that she enjoyed crossword puzzles and kept in touch with her high-school classmates, and that she left a long list of relatives to cherish the spirit of her love. Reading the funeral programs is touching and bittersweet, reminding me of my own family losses and the futile urge to sum up and celebrate a life in one short day.
The African American Funeral Programs Collection is open for research, and much of it is available on digitalmaryland.com. It’s one of several “data sets” I have cross-referenced with my Maryland Recipe Database as a part of my new initiative to unearth more detailed life stories of Marylanders whose lives shaped the meals that I eat, and the world that I live in.
Recipe:
- 1 6.5 oz can water-packed tuna fish, drained
- 1 Cup shredded Cheddar Cheese*
- .25 Cup chopped onion
- 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
- .75 Cup mayonnaise*
- 1 egg
- 1.25 Cup Bisquick
- 6 slices bread*
Heat oven to 450°. Mix baking mix, mayonnaise, and egg. Stir in tuna, cheddar cheese, onion and lemon juice. Spread mixture over 6 slices of reduced calorie bread. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet until puffy and golden brown. Serve immediately. Makes 6 open face sandwiches.
* Barclift called for reduced-calorie and low-fat cheese, mayonnaise and bread. It was the 1990s after all.
Recipe adapted from “Our Book of Favorite Recipes,” Naylor-Hughes Fellowship of Sharp St. Memorial United Methodist Church, 1994.
