Sylvia Marsh of Old Lyme Turns 100 Today!

The Marsh family home on Old Shore Road has been bustling this week with relatives and friends stopping by to wish the family matriarch a happy birthday. There are more candles on the cake than anyone could be expected to blow out, however, because today Sylvia Marsh turns 100!

Born on October 23, 1912, in Kilmacolm, Scotland, Marsh has lived in Old Lyme since 1939 yet her home has a decidedly British feel to it, with "Upstairs, Downstairs" on the television and the offer of a cup of tea coming almost instantly from Marsh's granddaughter Inglis Tucker, who has been busy baking a cake a day for the past week.

Marsh suffered a stroke which left her unable to speak, but her mind remains sharp and she is able to communicate with visitors by writing on a white board. It's not a quick process but given the effort required, it makes it easy to skip the small talk.   

Marsh documented much of her early life in a self-published biography she wrote about her mother, Grace Ella Muriel Brand (who was decidedly more "upstairs" than "downstairs"). She writes that she recalls little of World War I, which ended when she was 6, but she describes seeing the first cars, the first planes—mostly Spitfires that used to buzz overhead—and describes what life was like growing up as the fourth of six children born to an English vicar in Scotland. 

But it's personal history, not world history, that Marsh wants to talk about now. Asked about the most significant changes she's seen, she begins with her first marriage. She was "matched" in marriage to Austin Beardsley, an American from New Jersey whose family had a summer house in Old Lyme.

"The reason I came here was that he came from here," Marsh wrote. 

Life-Altering Moments

Marsh's first visit to the United States began with a rough crossing on the Queen Mary during the Hurricane of 1938. The Beardsley family had wanted to show her around the artist colony in Old Lyme but it turned into a tour of the devastation wrought by the hurricane. 

Sylvia married Beardsley in 1939 but the couple's life got off to a rocky beginning. The British declared war on Germany while the Queen Mary was halfway across the Atlantic, making it an automatic target for German UBoats. The newlyweds arrived safely, however, and settled into a house once known as Peck Tavern at 1 Sill Lane in Old Lyme.

It was hard on Sylvia, however, who writes that she felt torn between two worlds, trying to adjust to her new life as wife and new mother to two sons and worrying about how her family was faring so far away during the war when letters came only sporadically. The marriage, it turned out, wasn't destined to last.

"He let me down," wrote Marsh.  

Marsh's first marriage ended in 1948 but she wasn't alone for long. "Then I married my husband Lea," she wrote. "He was a nice man."  

E. Lea Marsh Jr. was a prominent local attorney and former Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives. The two met at a square dance and married in 1950. Their twin daughters, Jane (an attorney who is on the Old Lyme Zoning Commission) and Elizabeth were born a year later.  

Besides being a lawyer and a legislator, Lea Marsh was also head of the American Jersey Cattle Club. Sylvia helped him with that and the family raised good cattle—one of their cows was selected out of 10,000 entries to be "Elsie," the Borden Dairy Cow. 

Proudest Moments 

Last week, Marsh received a special proclamation from the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen honoring her on her 100th birthday. But Marsh, who never gave up her British citizenship, is waiting for one more birthday greeting.

Traditionally, any British citizen who turns 100 receives a letter from the Queen. Jane Marsh said she's written to Buckingham Palace and is assured that one will be in the mail. There's no question that Sylvia Marsh remains a loyal subject. On July 4, 1976 she locked the gates to Griswold Point in an attempt to reclaim the land for the British Empire!

Asked what accomplishment she's most proud of, however, Marsh doesn't hesitate. "My painting," she wrote. Like her mother before her, Marsh attended art school but, aside from creating the most artistic Christmas cookies you'll ever see, she didn't have much time to devote to it until after her husband's death.  

Marsh was in her late 80s when she became an Elected Artist in the Lyme Art Association, proving that it's never too late to pursue your passion.