Mary Worrell

1942 - 2026

Mary Magavern Worrell of Providence, Rhode Island, died of cancer on January 30, 2026, in her home and with her family. She was born in Buffalo in 1942 and is survived by her husband, Rick, son, Jamie (Kimberly), and daughters Elizabeth Carroll (David) and Hope Martin (Chip), nine grandchildren, and sisters Margy Hargraves (Skip, deceased) and Jane Beebe (Spencer) as well as many nieces, nephews, and Godchildren.

In 1960 she was presented at the 20th Century Club in Buffalo and later graduated from Buffalo Seminary. After two years at Bradford Junior College and one year at Reid Hall in her beloved Paris she graduated from Boston University in 1964. She married a close Dartmouth College friend of her two Dartmouth brothers and settled in Providence in 1964.

Influenced by her time studying in Paris she answered an undeniable call to landscape architecture, where the full force of her passion for 'the gentle hand of man in nature' blossomed. She accomplished the hard-earned designation of Registered Landscape Architect, all the while caring for her family with homemade everything delicious, especially fresh out of the oven cookies for the kids and their friends after school. Humble and appreciative of the advantages in life, she used to say Rick "gave her the wings to fly" as she reflected on her career as an incredibly talented Landscape Architect. Mary's creativity and appreciation of beauty were a constant in her life. She loved nothing more than a day outdoors, playing tennis, boating, skiing, and especially working in the garden to exhaustion. She never took one ounce of sunlight for granted, always planting one more bulb or raking up one more pile of leaves, and used her time on Earth wisely, never one to rest on her laurels or let an opportunity slip by. She dedicated years to develop Southside Community Land Trust, believing strongly in community gardening and farming's fundamental ability to empower and connect people.

GRACE: The one simple word that defined Mary. Throughout her life a natural grace always seemed to shine through as she strove to manage the complexities and demands of her family, personal, professional and community life. Her solve came from her bottomless well of generosity. She always thought of everyone else first and never, even in the hardest of her long health struggles, complained. She made it look easy. She was loved. She shared this grace with all, lived first concerned with others, grateful for life's gifts, especially friends, family, and nature's beauty.

ELEGANCE: Friends often spoke of Mary's simple, subtle elegance. Her physical beauty contributed to that, but friends insisted that she always looked elegant whether dressed for a normal day's work, a formal event, or just rubber boots and a bandana in a muddy garden, but always with her bright pink lipstick. She seemed naturally to project that subtle elegance.

She left at peace, with gratitude for all she had experienced, having shown us all how to love and live. Her family thanks her many caregivers.