According to Jack Carney, when Mary E. Marcy took her life at age 45 on December 8, 1922 her last written words were, “I want rest. NO funeral, no flowers, cremation.” And her wishes were observed. On receiving news of her death, Eugene V. Debs wrote this condolence to Mary’s partner and comrade for over twenty year, Leslie H. Marcy, her fellow editor of the International Socialist Review. Because of the circumstances of her death, it was considered unseemly at the time to comment upon, so we have very few obituaries for Mary Marcy. First published in Carney’s 1923 memorial.

‘My Dear Leslie Marcy’ by Eugene V. Debs, December 16, 1922.

Terre Haute, Ind., December 16th, 1922.

My Dear Leslie Marcy:

Your message containing the very sad, heart-breaking news has just come into my hands. How deeply pained and cruelly shocked I feel to hear of your dear Mary’s going out cannot be expressed on this cold sheet of paper.

What a thousand pities this noble heart should have ceased to beat and this brilliant mind to think in the very morning of life! It is impossible for me to realize what you say and my heart refuses to believe that Mary Marcy is dead. I did not see her often, but I knew her well, and I loved and honored her more than well. She was one of the clearest minds and greatest souls in all our movement, and her passing into the great silence will be such a loss as will leave an aching void to those who knew her, for her place can never be filled. I admired her for her uncompromising integrity, and I loved her for her high-souled devotion to her ideals and her personal loyalty to her comrades. She was a sweet, fine, brilliant and truly noble little woman, and her precious memory will be sacredly cherished by me to the last of my life.

The book of Mary’s, her last contribution to the cause, has just come and is in my hands, and I am thanking her and you through my tears. It is a rare volume and one we shall treasure among our garnered riches and most precious possessions.

Leslie, dear comrade, our hearts are with you and we share your bereavement as her soul goes marching on and grows more radiant with the passing years.

With love and sympathy and tears,

Yours always,

EUGENE V. DEBS.

PDF of pamphlet: PDF of pamphlet: http://cfss.indstate.edu/debspams/c289m3_1923.pdf