Marjorie Cornell Emerson was born April 19, 1917 at home on Bean Hill above Endicott, NY. She was the youngest child of Burr Avery Cornell and Charlotte Fulmer, and was born on a farm with one brother and four sisters. She entered elementary school at the age of 7 because her parents thought she was too young to walk the 2 ½ miles through the snow to school until that age. She attended elementary school where her father was Superintendent of Schools and the wife of her older brother was her first teacher. She then attended Union Endicott High School, graduating with honors in history, but the family could not afford to send her to college. She moved to Washington, DC to attend the Washington Secretarial School that prepared her to work for the State Department. She met Marvin R. Emerson while assisting her sister-in-law to keep score at a horse shoe pitching contest, and they were married September 20, 1941, after which they spent time in Alaska working for the Army Corps of Engineers. Their adventures took them to all 50 states of the US and all of the provinces of Canada. Mrs. Emerson became a member of the Secretariat of the United Nations that went to San Francisco, CA in 1945 to prepare for the International Conference that drew up and ratified the charter of the United Nations on October 24, 1945. She was then invited to accompany Eleanor Roosevelt to the London Conference, and worked for the UN across Europe and North Africa until her husband returned from building Army Air bases in India, at which time she returned to Washington, DC to be there when he arrived home from World War II.

Mrs Emerson continued to work for the State Department while her husband was supervisor of construction Side D of the Pentagon, helped build the US Naval Academy, and ran his own construction company. She then became a homemaker, so that she could raise their two daughters Elissa and Cece Emerson. Theirs was a home where the neighborhood kids and school friends were welcome, where parties and slumber parties took place, where church youth group members and Girl Scout troop members were familiar. The daughters also took piano lessons and were always blessed with rides where they wanted to go until they could drive themselves.

Mr. & Mrs. Emerson were members of Mount Vernon Place Methodist Church in Washington, DC; Chevy Chase Methodist Church in Chevy Chase, MD, and then Trinity Methodist Church in DeLand, FL for 37 years. Mrs. Emerson spent her last decade of life as a member of First Presbyterian Church of DeLand, FL where she loved to volunteer to answer the phone in the office one day per week as long as she was able.

Mrs. Emerson passed gently into spirit on Friday, January 21, 2011 at 5:40 am. She spent her last week attended by her granddaughter Maria, her two daughters Cece and Elissa Emerson, and her niece Marda Rushing, as well as dear friends Elise Snedeker, Summer (and Daryan and Dillon) Wilson-Forst, and Cindy McFadzen. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 67 years Marvin R. Emerson, her father Burr Avery Cornell, her mother Charlotte Fulmer Cornell, her older brother Halbert Cornell and sisters-in-law Lena Cornell and Edna Johnson, her sisters Helen Cornell Baker, Ida Cornell Swagler, Hazel Cornell Shellhammer, Eleanor Cornell Peters; brothers-in-law Ray Baker, James Swagler, Ed Shellhammer, Russell Peters, Leonard Johnson, Edwin Waldo Emerson, Robert Britten, Robert Keal, Jack Conard, nieces Debbie Britten and Nancy Emerson and nephews Lester Swagler and Barry Keal. She is survived by two daughters Elissa Emerson of DeLand, FL and Cece Emerson of Houston, TX; granddaughter Maria Bianciardi (Grace) of Boston, MA,, and Nora Eloise Bianciardi her great granddaughter. She is also survived by her three dear sisters-in-law Evelyn Britten of Bremerton, WA, Maerene Conard of Peachtree City, GA, and Lois Keal of Armstrong, IL; and by numerous nieces and nephews including Marda (Doc) Rushing of South Bend, IN; Burr (Mary Ann) Cornell of Endicott, NY; Alene Desko of Syracuse, NY, Carol (Jim) Gabbert of St. Louis, MO; Virginia Hyatt of Greenwood, SC, Everett (Pat) Swagler of NY and New Smyrna Beach, FL; Delores (Nick) Dranchak of NY, Norman (Patti) Swagler of Santa Barbara, CA; Helen Jane Harris of Endicott, NY; Ellen (Tom) Markulin of Cary, NC; Charlotte (Lawrence) Yetter of Appalachin, NY; Jane Emerson of Ocala, FL; Mike Emerson (Dace) of Springfield, VA; Robert Emerson (Janie) of La Jolla, CA; Kristin Roberts (Mike) of Falls Church, VA; Steve Roberts (Amy) of Ashville, NC, Bonnie Britten (Gene) of Arlington, VA, Jeanne Conard (Mike) Jones of Darmstadt, Germany, Bruce Conard of Peachtree City, GA, Nancy Conard Harp of Normal, IL; Linda Keal Wolf of Boonville, IN, Robert Britten and Charles Britten of WA and many more. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Special Music Program at the First Presbyterian Church of DeLand, FL (c/o Fred Eschleman, Director); or Hospice of Volusia/Flagler (address), Port Orange, FL.. Allen-Summerhill of DeLand, FL is handling burial arrangements. A memorial service for Mrs. Emerson will take place Saturday, January 29, 2011 at 10:30 am at the First Presbyterian Church, 724 N. Woodland Blvd, DeLand, FL.