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Elizabeth Stayer Margulis, December 30, 1913- April 21, 2004. Elizabeth Hendryson, national advocate for parents and children, noted public speaker and medical librarian, died in her sleep April 21, 2004, at Central Gardens in San Francisco. She was 90. Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., to William Bechtel Stayer and Edna Shires Stayer, she was the fourth of five children and the only girl. When her mother died in the flu epidemic in 1918, her father moved the family to Florida, where he married Sadie Rawls, who became the mother she had lost and her best friend for life. Growing up in a family which honored reading before chores led her to graduate with honors from Plant High School in Tampa, FL, and to major in English and minor in journalism at Wesleyan College in Macon, GA. She edited the weekly Pearson Tribune, and was women's page editor of the Augusta Tribune and the Macon Telegraph & News. She married Frederick W. New of Macon in 1933. They had two children. When they divorced, she earned a master's of library science from Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh in 1941 and was children's librarian in public libraries in Brooklyn, NY. She studied medical reference at Columbia University's School of Library Science, and was assistant librarian for the Rockefeller Institute and librarian at New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital of Columbia University. There she met and married her second husband, Dr. Aaron E. Margulis in 1944. The family moved in 1947 to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Dr. Margulis was the first pathologist between Denver, Dallas and Phoenix. She joined the PTA, became president of the state organization, and in 1967, was elected president of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, which had 11 million members. She was a delegate to White House conferences on children and youth, education and aging, and in 1968, received an alumnae award for distinguished achievement from Wesleyan College. In 1969, Secretary of State William P. Rogers appointed her to the US Commission for UNICEF. Her lifelong passion was early childhood education. In the PTA Magazine in 1968, she wrote, ``My wish was that every home might become a mini-school, with its adults a well-qualified faculty.'' She showered books on her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, told stories in the Santa Fe Public Library and was children's librarian in the New Mexico State Extension Library. She was a member of the American Library Association and the Children's Services Division. After the death of Dr. Margulis in 1960, she worked in Chicago for the American Medical Association, where she met her third husband, Dr. Irvin E. Hendryson. After their marriage in 1965, they moved to Albuquerque, where he was assistant dean at the University of New Mexico Medical School. They also lived in Fort Defiance, AZ, on the Navajo Reservation working for the Navajo Health Authority. He established an emergency medical system and developed a plan for an all-Indian medical school. She was a circuit rider librarian in medical reference. Dr. Hendryson died in 1976. She was medical librarian at the UNM Health Science Center Library from 1977 until her retirement. In 1980, she was named New Mexico Librarian of the Year by the New Mexico Library Association. She was a dedicated volunteer, including for the Santa Fe Maternal Child and Health Center, the Women's Auxiliary to the Santa Fe County Medical Society, KNME PBS Channel 5 in Albuquerque and the UNM Cancer Research and Treatment Center. She volunteered at the Erna Ferguson branch library and proudly served as word pronouncer for the Albuquerque Spelling Bee. During her retirement, she traveled to Europe, played bridge and dined with her many friends, especially the Albuquerque Birthday Girls, attended the Balloon Fiesta and read to her first great-grandchild, Harry New of Santa Fe. She was a fan of newspapers, of ``Jeopardy,'' ``Wheel of Fortune'' and a longtime ticket holder to the Albuquerque Symphony. She loved learning, studying everything from belly dancing, New Mexico history and ``Understanding Football for Women.'' She loved knitting, reciting poems, playing four hands on the piano and singing. She led a chorus of ``O Fair New Mexico'' at every grandchild's wedding, and until she died, sang the lyrics of her favorite songs. Her niece, Glenda Stayer Wood, said, ``she loved cats, books, chocolate, males, Indian jewelry, mountains, and was always center stage at any gathering.'' She leaves her children: Dr. Peter S. New of Punta Gorda, FL, and Elizabeth Weld Nolan of San Francisco; her grandchildren: Robert New of Gloucester, MA; William New and wife Darla Silva, formerly of Albuquerque, now of Takoma Park, MD; Patrick New and wife Jennifer Brookes of Santa Fe; Sarah Weld of Oakland, CA; Dr. Rose Weld of North Reading, MA; step-grandchildren David Nolan of Beverly, MA; Ellen Nolan of Washington, DC; and Peter Nolan of Monterey, CA; and Chris Veator of Cape Coral, FL; and nine great-grandchildren. Friends are invited to celebrate her life Sunday, May 30, 2004, at the Santa Fe Friends Meetinghouse at 630 Canyon Road at 4:30 p.m. Donations may be made in her name to the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, 1927 Paysphere Circle, Chicago, IL 60674; the American Library Association, 50 East Huron Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611; or Crossroads Hospice Foundation, 1109 Vicente Street, suite 104, San Francisco, CA 94116.
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