Community Remembers Long-Time Volunteer Margie Schine

Jerry Schine will remember his late wife as a devoted and loving mother, a friend to many, a selfless volunteer and a civic leader.

“When she saw things that needed to be done, she got them done,” Jerry said.

Marjorie “Margie” Schine died Sunday at the age of 89.

Margie was born on Nov. 6, 1923, as a fourth-generation Tampa native. She married Jerry in 1955 and they moved to Temple Terrace the next year. They had a son and named him Michael.

Margie was a go-getter, but she tackled obstacles without being pushy.

“In the 1941 (Plant) High School Annual, she was voted sweetest and friendliest,” Jerry said. “And that she was.”

In 1958, Margie was a charter member of the GFWC Temple Terrace Junior Woman’s Club and was its president one year before she joined the GFWC Temple Terrace Woman’s Club.

She served the Woman’s Club as treasurer, budget and audit chairwoman, Arts Festival chairwoman and twice as president. She helped start the publishing of a city directory as a community service and served as chairman of what became the Temple Terrace Guide. The Guide was published for 44 years.

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Maryrose Owens, the Woman’s Club’s current president, met Margie in the late 1960s when she helped take care of Margie’s ailing mother.

“Margie was the most devoted family member I have ever known,” Owens said.

The two became friends and worked together on projects for the Woman’s Club and Corpus Christi Catholic Church, of which Margie was a founding member.

“She cared about other people,” Owens said. “She always wanted to give. She was just a wonderful person.”

Margie also began volunteering at the Temple Terrace Library in the early ’60s. During the library’s 50th anniversary in April 2012, she talked about how she and other members the Woman’s Club converted the Temple Terrace Golf Club’s former pro shop to a library.

When she went volunteered at library, Michael came with her.

“I put a little box in the window and that’s where he would take a nap while his mother was a librarian,” she said during the anniversary celebration.

Joe Affronti was mayor during the library’s 50th anniversary. He said he first got to know Margie when he became involved in Temple Terrace politics in 1998.

“Margie was an outstanding, outstanding person, and she did so much for the community,” he said Thursday. “We were just so blessed to have someone like her in our community. I’m just privileged to have known her.”

Margie is credited with saving Woodmont Clubhouse, Temple Terrace’s oldest building. The structure was originally built in the early 1900s as part of a ranch owned by Bertha Palmer, Temple Terrace’s founder. Later, it was converted to a three-room schoolhouse, which eventually became abandoned.

“It was a dilapidated old building,” Jerry said.

Margie and others decided to transform the structure into a meeting place.

“We had been looking for property where civic and service groups could meet,” Margie told Temple Terrace Patch in a 2011 interview. “One property, located on the golf course, was an option, but there was no parking. Woodmont Annex, however, was owned by the city and looked promising.”

Margie founded the Woodmont Clubhouse Association, a nonprofit organization, in 1979 and led the conversion efforts. The city contributed less than 10 percent of the cost of the original building conversion. Margie lined up donations of services, including an architect, contractor, legal, financial, siding, furniture and appliances. She also helped find the money to make the project a reality.

One year later, the transformation was complete. To this day, the building seats 200 people classroom-style or 125 for dinner in the main room. There’s also a foyer, kitchen and bathrooms. Margie served on the Woodmont board as its president from 1979 to 1989. She was an executive committee member from 1979 to 2010, and then served as advisor until her recent death.

Ruth Morris is now the president of the Woodmont Clubhouse Association. She knew Margie for 15 years.

“I remember Margie as someone who taught me how to be gracious, yet firm, and how to run board meetings efficiently and effectively,” Morris said. “I learned how to disagree and stay professional.”

Even folks who didn’t know Margie very well seem to understand what a special person she was. Barbara Sparks-McGlinchy, executive director of the Greater Temple Terrace Chamber of Commerce, said she only met Margie a few times.

“My impression of her was that she was a lovely lady who was extremely dedicated to her community,” Sparks-McGlinchy said.

Margie was named the chamber’s Citizen of the Year for 1979-1980. In 1982, she hosted “From the Terrace,” a weekly television show on Coaxial Cable Channel 4. The 30-minute program featured current event topics.

On Sept. 20, 2011, the City of Temple Terrace honored Margie for her volunteer spirit and leadership in Temple Terrace.

Margie’s celebration of life took place Wednesday, and Morris attended.

“It was very elegant, yet simple—like Margie,” Morris said. “It was a very wonderful reflection of Margie’s life.”

In lieu of flowers, Margie’s family is asking those who would like to remember Margie to donate to the “Margie Schine Memorial Fund,” which will benefit the Woodmont Clubhouse Association. The money will be used for the continued beautification of Woodmont, Morris said. Checks can be mailed to:

Woodmont Clubhouse Association Inc.
ATTN: Margie Schine Memorial Fund
415 Woodmont Avenue
Temple Terrace, FL 33617

For more information, visit the Woodmont Clubhouse website.

Those who would like to express comfort to the family may sign Margie’s guestbook or share a memory on the Blount & Curry Funeral Home-Terrace Oaks website.

Jerry said that in her volunteering heyday, Margie was so involved that he could never reach her from work on their home phone because the line was always busy. He had a second line put in, which he said he thought would solve the problem.

“Then I found that both phones were busy,” he said.

He acknowledged that losing Margie has been one of the most difficult experiences he’s ever had to go through.

“It will take some adjustment,” he said. “She was a wonderful, wonderful wife.”

Did you know Margie? Share your memories of her in the comments section below.

See also:

• Pioneer Remembers Library’s Early Days
• Council Adopts Millage Rate and Budget
• Historical Marker Will Honor Temple Terrace Founder