AFebruary 21 2010
Centre Daily Times, State College, Pennsylvania, Sunday, February 21, 2010
Madge Coleman Byrne
September 28, 1925—January 26, 2010.
Madge Coleman Byrne died peacefully in her home on Jan. 26, 2010.
Born Madge Ellen Coleman to William Noble Coleman and Desse Lee Austin Coleman in Detroit, Mich., Sept. 28, 1925, she lived a long and rich life, full of both great sorrow and great joy. She came from a wealthy family that lost their fortune in the Great Depression, so she raised rabbits in the backyard for food as a child. She sang professionally with big bands in Detroit and Chicago during high school and college, which she paid for herself. She graduated summa cum laude from University of Michigan in English, stayed at Michigan on a graduate assistantship in philosophy and studied in Paris on a Fulbright scholarship.
At Michigan, she met Donald Byrne and on Feb. 6, 1954, they married. Madge and Donald taught at Olivet College and at Valparaiso University where they had two sons, Jonathan, born June 21, 1958, and Christopher, born Dec. 14, 1960. Madge had finished nearly all of her doctoral thesis when her advisor died and Donald contracted a terminal disease. Donald beat his prognoses by 10 years and lived until 1976, serving as English teacher and chess coach for Penn State and competing internationally on the U.S. chess team. After several years grieving death, Madge blossomed as an independent woman who was happy living alone in the College Heights home in which she had raised her family.
Despite excellent references from her prior teaching, Penn philosophy department refused to hire her and discouraged her from finishing her Ph.D. because “a woman has no business teaching philosophy.” When Donald's death was imminent, she took a minimum wage labor job at Pattee Library and worked her way up to be a supervisor in the cataloging department, where her knowledge of French, German and Latin enabled her to invent some of the cataloging protocols in use today. She retired in 1990 after 16 years of full-time service to the library.
In her retirement, she traveled the world and energetically volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, Centre Volunteers in Medicine, the Palmer Museum Docents and many other organizations. She was a life-long learner and took Penn State courses in history and art history throughout her retirement and also took in dozens of lectures on video and cassette. She invested much of her time and energy in her grandchildren. Nurturing her granddaughters' pursuit of music and dance was especially close to her heart.
She stayed active in music herself, singing for many years with the State College Choral Society and was a patron of our local orchestras. She occasionally sang jazz with her son Chris' bands, which in recent years included one or more of her grand- daughters. Madge's last public performance was with the Jackson-Byrne Band at Big Easy while celebrating her 80th birthday with the rest of her family on the dance floor.
She took great pride in compiling an encyclopedic scrapbook of chess tournaments, which brought his brilliant but tragically short career renewed attention. Along with the wonderful advocacy of former Penn State team member Dan Heisman, the book resulted in Donald being posthumously inducted into the U.S Chess Hall of Fame in 2003. Madge was given the “Chess Mate of the Year” award by the U.S. Chess Federation.
Madge's son, Jonathan, died in October 2009, a blow she endured with characteristic strength. She spent her last months at home under the care of her son, Chris, and his family, not really ill but rapidly winding down. Strong-willed to the end, when Madge made up her mind it was time to die, she did with grace, humor and a brave acceptance of the unknown she was facing.
Madge is survived by her son, Christopher, his wife, Caryl, and their daughters, Keely, Adrienne, Grace; and her son Jonathan's son, Jonathan Michael Byrne, of Burke, Va.
Memorial contributions can be made to Centre Volunteers in Medicine. Friends will be received in home from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010.
