Marjorie Marie "Margie" KINCAID

KINCAID, Marjorie "Margie" Marie, 88, died peacefully Tuesday, June 16 2010, at Palm Garden of Pinellas Nursing Facility in Largo. Born in Indiana to Julius and Maude DeWald, she moved to Tampa at age two, following the death of her father. Her mother later married Frank Delgado, a school janitor, who raised Margie as if he were her own. While growing up Margie worked in her mother' s beauty shop, helping to earn money for her family during the Depression, and enjoyed hunting and fishing with Frank. Margie learned Spanish from Frank, and never let on that she understood the conversations in Spanish going on around her, which aided her through life. She graduated Plant High School in 1939, with dreams of something more exciting than what Tampa then had to offer, but when war broke out she put her dreams on hold and did her part for the country. During World War II, Margie was a "Rosie the Riveter," working in the shipyards of Houston and Los Angeles, as a welder' s marker in searing heat and all types of weather on scaffolding around the ship' s hull. She returned to Tampa towards the end of the war, and because she wanted to fly, became a small aircraft pilot and later owned her own plane. When her sister was tragically killed in a Christmas Eve car accident in 1946, Margie helped care for her nephew, who fondly remembers Margie as "his own Auntie Mame." Margie met Bill Kincaid, the love of her life, and after marrying him in 1956, went to work in Kincaid Brick in South Tampa, where she and Bill mixed cement and hauled construction materials themselves as they grew their small business. As small business owners, Bill and Margie could not understand why "Hillsborough County was a single-party county," and worked to cultivate a Republican presence here since the 1950' s. "They didn' t like the idea of governmental intrusion in their daily lives and the ' single party political machine' in Hillsborough County." Later Margie followed in her husband Bill' s shoes as chairman of the Hillsborough County Republican Party, whose offices were located in front of Kincaid Brick on S. Dale Mabry for many years. Margie was always acutely aware of injustice during her life, and worked to reach out to the African American, Hispanic and gay communities, as well as youth, to welcome them into the Republican Party. She never approved of politics for personal gain. She did throughout her life what she thought was right, not what was popular. Margie was preceded in death by her husband, Bill; sisters, Helen and Jane; brothers, Jude and Allen; and nephew Allen George DeWald. She is survived by her sister-in-law, Alma DeWald; nephew, Richard Hemrick (RaeJean) of St. George, Utah and their six children and 13 grandchildren; nephew, David DeWald (Elaine) and their three children and two grandchildren; nephew, Walter DeWald, and her poodle, Tishie; as well as a few close friends. A gathering of family and friends will take place 5-8 p.m. Monday, June 21, at Blount and Curry Funeral Home, 605 S. Mac Dill Avenue, Tampa. Margie' s favorite color was purple. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Margie' s memory (non-deductible) are suggested to one of the following: African American Republican Club of H. C., 3409 Tally Court, Tampa, FL 33618, Hispanic Republican Club of H. C., P.O. Box 320296, Tampa, FL 33679-2796, Log Cabin Republicans, P.O. Box 27484, Tampa, FL 33623-7484 or USF College Republicans, The University of South Florida, 4202 Fowler Avenue, MSC 142, Tampa, Florida 33620. In honor of Margie, her friends are asked to do a random, anonymous act of kindness for another, to right an injustice, and, if they imbibe, to have an apple martini (with two maraschino cherries) in her honor. She' s gone on to something far better than any political convention could offer. Please sign the online guestbook at www. blountcurrymacdill.com.