Coping with Grief
We would like to offer our sincere support to anyone coping with grief. Enter your email below for our complimentary daily grief messages. Messages run for up to one year and you can stop at any time. Your email will not be used for any other purpose.
MARJORIE MARIE HARDIMAN MCREYNOLDS was born October 23. 1927 in Princeton, Indiana to William Bonnie Hardiman and Francis Elizabeth (Russell) Hardiman. Due to the untimely death of her Mother when Marjori was only 8 years old, the village stepped in; in the persons of her Grandmother Nancy J. Hardiman, Aunts Eva Ann Hardiman Walden and Mildred Russell Walden and Uncle Lee Roy Hardiman. In sharing memories of her childhood, Marjorie always affectionately referred to them as Grandma Nancy, Aunt Evie, Aunt Mil and Uncle Buddy. Marjorie was loving known as Baby Sis, Marge and MoJo.
Marjorie was raised in the Princeton / Lyles Station, IN area. [Lyles Station is one of Indiana's early and few remaining black rural settlements.] She began her education at Lyles Station Consolidated School in Lyles Station, IN. [The Lyles Consolidated School was constructed in 1922. The building ceased to be used as a school in 1958. The school was the most prominent building in the community, along with the Wayman Chapel A.M.E. church. Information and artifacts from the community, school and church can now be viewed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.] She matriculated to Lincoln High School in Princeton and after moving to Gary, IN, she graduated from Gary Roosevelt High School in 1948. Both Lincoln and Roosevelt were two of the three high schools that Black people could attend in the state of Indiana at the time.
Marjorie’s father William Bonnie moved to Gary, IN along with Marjorie’s brother John Moses Hardiman, where her father met and married Willa Mae Hardiman. After they were settled, Marjorie moved to Gary to join her family. She continued to make Gary her home for many years.
Through friends and her new membership at Greater St. James A.M.E. Church, in 1946 she met Albert McReynolds. Their love blossomed early. They married on June 27, 1948. To this union two daughters were born, Valda and Albertine. The family extended to include two sons-in-law, Clarence Lewis and Michael Potter. The family has since grown to include 5 grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren. Over the years she and Albert parented many other children in the community and church. Marjorie was the school mother at the various schools her children attended and for a short time was the first bus driver for Elka Child Center. Marjorie and Albert were married for 63 years until the Lord took Albert home in 2012.
Marjorie was a joy-filled, loving woman. She loved God, her family and friends with a sweet and gentle heart. Being raised by her Grandmother and Aunts, she loved her cousins as siblings, her closest cousin/sisters being Opal (deceased 2017), Mary (deceased 2008), and Clara (deceased 1968) Walden and cousin/brother Grant (deceased 2018). Marjorie enjoyed cooking, baking, sewing, fill-in word puzzles, and watching Christian television, westerns, and game shows, particularly Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. She was a very active and helpful member of Greater St. James A.M.E. Church serving as church secretary, member of Usher Board #2, member of the Parkerettes, cooking with the kitchen committee and teaching vacation bible school. She also loved to spend time with her many friends throughout the community, often taking her grandchildren with her as she visited their homes.
Departing the loving care of her daughter and son Teenie and Michael in the early morning hours of June 3, 2021, a loving multitude awaited Marjorie when she arrived in heaven; Her husband Albert McReynolds, mother Francis Elizabeth, father William Bonnie Hardiman, step-mother Willa Mae Hardiman, brother and sister-in-love John Moses and Jessie “Nell” Hardiman, parents-in-love Daniel and Frankie McReynolds, son-in-love Clarence Lewis, nephew Karl Hardiman, and many more beloved ancestral family and friends.
Her loving legacy of gentle strength, unwavering love and trust in God, and heartfelt love of family and friends will live on through her daughters Valda Lewis, Albertine Potter and son-in-love Michael Potter, grandchildren Anjanette M. McReynolds Lewis, Danielle J.A. Potter, Margaret (Tony Sr.) Blake, Flora A. Lewis and Philip (Tisha) Potter; great-grandchildren Tiffany (Babatilewa) Phillips, Christopher Miller, Sydney Miller, Alexandria Potter, Nasir Lewis, Serenity Potter, Brooklyn Gray, Kristian Blake, and Ava Gray; and great-great-grandchildren Camille Miller and Omoshalewa Phillips; nephew Roderick Hardiman; great-nephew Kristopher Hardiman; God-daughter Debra Hudson; the members of Greater St. James A.M.E. Church; numerous special sons and daughters and other relatives and friends.
To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Marjorie Marie McReynolds, please visit our floral store.