Margaret Mahone "Mardee" Witten

1923 - 2019

Margaret Mahone ("Mardee") Witten passed away at home on December 31, 2019, surrounded by family. Mardee was born in Williamsburg, Virginia on December 2, 1923. She was the daughter of the late Richard Wise Mahone and Margaret Daley Mahone. She attended Matthew Whaley School in Williamsburg, and was a 1942 graduate of St. Margaret's School in Tappahannock, Virginia. She attended St. Mary's College, Raleigh, North Carolina and the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia before graduating from the University of Virginia School of Nursing in 1947. When she was 17 years old, she met Charles Henry ("Chuck") Witten, a young Naval officer, and, after the war, in 1947, they married in Newport, Rhode Island. Together, they raised five children. During their 67 year marriage, they lived in Newport, RI, Williamsburg, VA, Chalfont St Peter, England and Columbia, SC, where, in 1960, her husband took command of the Naval ROTC unit at the University of South Carolina. In 1963, President Thomas F. Jones asked Chuck to be Dean of Students at USC, and Columbia became their permanent home. She was an active member of the University Women's Club and, since the 1970s, the University Women's Club Hobby Group, where she made her dearest life-long Columbia friends. She was also a member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and Daughters of the Holy Cross, and The English Speaking Union. Mardee was her husband's helpmate and was always by his side. As the Dean's wife, she hosted many parties for university students and dignitaries. Later, she hosted his graduate students, gladly bringing them fresh-baked cookies and drinks as they worked with the professor on their dissertations. Together, they traveled the world; some of their more notable trips included visits to China in 1972, just after Nixon, and Cuba well before it was opened to U.S. citizens for tourism. Mardee was also a devoted daughter, who attended to her invalid mother each and every afternoon at Manor Care, feeding her dinner and giving her goodnight hugs for a decade. Under her loving guidance, the Witten home was a sanctuary for all living things. She was well-known for the care that she provided to animals, and even people she didn't know personally would call the home asking if a "Witten kitten" was available. She loved nature and her garden. It was important to her that she pass on her knowledge and passion for nature, which she did by taking her grandchildren for walks in the neighborhood. Even in her last months, she took great pleasure just sitting on her back porch, watching the birds (and squirrels) in her backyard. Perhaps Mardee's most important work was that of being a mother, raising not only her five children, but showing interest in and care for all who she encountered. A dear family friend said that "no matter who you were, Mrs. Witten made you feel that you mattered." A visit to the Witten household was pure pleasure. On Sunday nights, Mardee would feed you a big bowl of popcorn and milk, a holdover from her mother's mid-western roots. For after school snacks, there were always Charles Chips and home-baked cookies available. You wouldn't find a television in the home, but you would find all of her five children playing, fighting, running in and out of the house with the backdoor slamming on their heels, or being ferried by her to myriads of after school or weekend activities in the station wagon. Hers was a true and welcoming home, one that she proudly lived in for 57 years. Mardee is survived by her brother, Thomas Daley Mahone, Williamsburg, VA; three daughters, Jane Daley Witten, Chapel Hill, NC; Margaret Mahone Witten, Atlanta, GA; and Anne Witten Bauknight (Dr. G. Conrad, Jr.), Columbia; two sons, Charles Spence Daley Witten, Williamsburg, VA; and Richard Mahone Witten (Elizabeth), Rochester Hills, MI; eleven grandchildren, Spence II (Michelle), Harold, and Nichole Witten; Margaret (Eddie Newman), Conrad III, Augusta, Witt (Kate), and Annie Bauknight; Charles II, Sarah, and Thomas Witten; one great grandchild, and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, as well as her brother, Richard Daley Mahone. The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to Trinity Cathedral Friends of Music, Oliver Gospel Mission, Charles H. and Margaret M. Witten Fellowship Endowment at USC's College of Education (USC, Office of Gift Processing, 1600 Hampton St., Suite 738, Columbia, SC, 29208) or the charity of your choice. Any charitable donation or act would have pleased her to no end. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 11, 2020 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter Street, Columbia, S.C. The family will receive friends in Satterlee Hall following the service. She and her husband will be buried in the spring, when the daffodils are blooming, beside her mother and father in her beloved Williamsburg, Virginia, at Cedar Grove, Williamsburg City Cemetery.