Thursday, December 09, 1999
Serious about spreading cheer
NEWPORT — Mary Marxen has a special talent for dressing like a Christmas tree, spraying herself with dog repellent and shuffling jokes in her head.
She was never any good at bridge. This is what she does instead.
For no charge, the 64-year-old Florence woman dashes from party to party during the Christmas season, entertaining community volunteers, senior citizens, singles clubs and any others willing to get what they pay for, as she likes to say.
For 10 years, Mrs. Marxen also has performed a free concert of sacred music between Christmas and New Year's Eve at Mother of God Church in Covington. That is a different sort of celebration: The church is lit only by candles, and each song ends with meditative silence instead of applause.
I caught up with Mrs. Marxen at an appreciation lunch for volunteers from St. Luke's Hospital East. Of the 70 women at The Syndicate restaurant, nearly all had seen the elfish grandma before. Fortunately, her act is different every time: a new lineup of Christmas songs, funny stories and ornaments dangling from the human tree.
“She's a panic,” said Bertie Dosch, referring to the hilarity of the show.
“I don't know how in the world she gets these outfits together,” said Ruth Burleson, another volunteer. “Her outfits are hysterical. Just looking at her makes you laugh.”
Mrs. Marxen has been doing her thing since 1988,
when she moved to Florence from Van Wert, Ohio.
Born in Minnesota, she attended a convent high school and was a nun for 16 years. During that time, she earned a master's degree in music and voice, taught school in Michigan and gave singing performances in prisons.
In the early '70s, as the religious life changed and more demands were placed on nuns, Mrs. Marxen left her order. A whirlwind year was to follow. In seven months, she went from nun to secretary to big-band singer to wife, stepmother and dog breeder.
Her husband, Norm Marxen, proposed on their first date, after meeting her at a big-band performance. She accepted three months later and became an instant mother to four children between 10 and 18.
Dr. Marxen was a surgeon who flew himself to rural Ohio hospitals. In 1983, he died in a plane crash. The couple had been married 13 years.
That trauma has a place in Mrs. Marxen's act. She doesn't mention it directly, but her funny stories carry a message: Live each day as if it were the last, for you or your loved ones. One day, you will be right.
At the volunteer appreciation lunch, she stood on a chair to look upon the sea of gray-haired women. This was the perfect audience for her. She understands arthritis, widowhood and the problem of driving at night. She told the women that Christmas was a state of mind, and theirs could be as wonderful as they made it.
In between the serious parts, she shared her Christmas money-saving tips. Use the same stockings to decorate your hearth and keep your hands warm, she said, pullng oversized socks from her hands.
Instead of expensive perfume, buy a $2.50 can of anti-mating spray for dogs. It smells terrific, she said, spraying herself.
Then there were jokes like this one:
A little girl decided to baptize her kittens as priests did babies in church. She dug a hole in her backyard, sprinkled each kitten with water and placed each in the hole.
Her mother asked what on earth she was doing.
“I'm baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and In The Hole It Goes!” she said.
The volunteers laughed and laughed. Mrs. Marxen beamed. She went home tired but fulfilled.
Looks like this will be another great Christmas for the human tree.
The Florence Women's Club invites all to attend Mary Marxen's sacred concert of carols and prayer at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 28 at Mother of God Church, 119 W. Sixth St., Covington.
Karen Samples is Kentucky columnist for the Enquirer. Her column appears Thursdays and Sundays. She can be reached at 578-5584, or by e-mail at ksamples@enquirer.com.
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