Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Tributes flood in for Marie, 96
Sportswoman and Airdrie teacher
Tributes have been paid to well- known Airdrie teacher and golfer Marie Henderson, who has died aged 96.
She spent her entire career teaching home economics in her home town and was also ladies’ captain of Airdrie golf club; where she once recorded a famous pro-am victory over a star-studded field including football legend Kenny Dalglish.
A memorial event will take place at the golf club this Sunday to celebrate her life – which also included a remarkable period of wartime service, plus globetrotting adventures to attend every Olympic and Commonwealth Games for two decades.
Marie was born at Kennedy Drive in November 1920, living in the same house until she was in her 60s, then moving to Clark Street in the town.
She attended Airdrie Academy – where she would later spend her teaching career – then went on to domestic science college, where she was studying at the time of the outbreak of World War II.
Her niece, Margaret Sweeney, told the Advertiser: “She started out in wartime in a voluntary aid detachment attached to the navy, and spent quite a lot of time working at Portsmouth military hospital.
“She was then selected to be the only woman in an experimental diving unit, based at a diving tank near Surbiton. She was an officer from a young age and served until the end of the war.
“We only discovered what she’d done in the war well into our own adulthood on seeing a photo of divers with one woman standing there in the team; she’d allowed us to think she was a cook in a hospital throughout.”
After the war, Marie qualified as a home economics teacher and began teaching at Airdrie Central school, soon moving to Airdrie Academy where she was principal teacher of the subject for most of her four-decade career.
Margaret added: “I was one of her pupils, along with all my friends – she was a very lively teacher and many people I know have favourite stories about her lessons.
“Early on, her subject included things like ironing with a flat iron heated by resting on hot coals, and using sewing machines which had foot pedals rather than being electric. One of her proudest boasts was that there was never a single injury in all of her practical teaching.
“She saw big changes in her career, such as when the school became comprehensive and she started teaching both boys and girls.
“As a teacher she had total control but also ready wit and a twinkle in her eye, and she’ll be remembered by generations of Airdrie Academy pupils.”
Marie retired in 1980 – and just months before stepping down from Airdrie Academy, scored an impressive sporting success when she triumphed over a celebrity field at an Airdrie golf club pro- am, winning the Paul Harcourt trophy ahead of dozens of celebrities including footballers Kenny Dalglish, Davie Provan, Murdo McLeod, Bobby Russell and John Greig, boxing champion Jim Watt and stage star Johnny Beattie.
Her interest in sport took her across the world, as she attended Olympic and Commonwealth Games in destinations including Moscow, Seoul, Auckland and Victoria.
Niece Margaret said: “She was interested in all sports, like golf, hockey and hill- walking; she primarily enjoyed watching athletics and was somebody with an adventurous spirit.
“She travelled to the Games with her cousin; she said she found the people in South Korea extremely friendly, and found people across the world very welcoming as they all had that common interest in sport.
“Marie was a very enthusiastic and talented golfer and was still playing in 2000, and even in her 80s she still insisted on us having adventures, going off to the countryside and climbing stiles!”
Latterly a resident at Rawyards care home, Marie died on October 31, just a week before her 97th birthday.