NANCY PYNE

PYNE NANCY MAGUIRE BEEBE GRAY PYNE (Age 93) Died Saturday, April 27, 2019 at her home in Hobe Sound, Florida. The matriarch of a sprawling family, Nancy was a paragon of her era: A formidable, learned and exacting person, defined by loyalty and generosity to family and friends. A woman loved by many, she was known alternately as: Nan, Grandnan, Deedee, Auntie and W.O.S.M. - for "wicked old stepmother," a term of endearment used by her three stepsons and the 41st president of the United States. The first of five children, Nancy was born October 31, 1925, in Washington, DC, to Brigadier General Hamilton E. Maguire and Anne Droop Maguire. Nancy's childhood was enlivened by meals at her parents' table, where friends gathered to discuss Greek mythology, music and art-always with a sense of humor. Her father liked to remind his children to "lower their voices" and "enunciate"-commands Nancy would repeat so often to her own children and grandchildren that a cousin suggested it should be written on her tombstone. Nancy attended the National Cathedral School and the Madeira School. After graduating from Vassar in 1946, she spent a year at the University of Zurich. Fluent in German and French, Nancy started her career as a reports officer in the U.S. State Department, where she met a foreign service officer named Marcus Beebe. They married in 1948. Their first post was at the U.S. consulate in Thessaloniki, at a time when Greece was battling communist insurgents. Under State Department rules, Nancy, 23, was precluded from continuing her career. Recognizing Nancy's sophistication, however, the consul general enlisted her to build relationships with diplomatic personnel. She mastered modern Greek and spent evenings on her porch overlooking Mount Olympus, a thrill for a woman raised on stories about the gods. After returning to the U.S., Nancy and Marcus welcomed three daughters: Cameron, Alexandra and Schuyler. Marcus' next assignment was in Hong Kong. Less than a week after Nancy and her daughters arrived to join him, Marcus contracted polio and died. Back in Washington, Nancy raised her children and worked in a garden shop frequented by Washington society. One night, the philanthropist Polly Fritchey invited her to a small dinner party, where she met Gordon Gray, then the president of the University of North Carolina, and a widower with four sons. They married in 1956. They frequently entertained journalists and members of the intelligence community at their house in Georgetown, through six administrations, until Gray's death in 1982. In 1995, Nancy married Eben Pyne, a dashing former banker, beginning one of the happiest periods of her life. Nancy made beautiful interiors and gardens in her homes in Georgetown; Northeast Harbor, Maine; and Hobe Sound, Florida, where she hosted biannual family reunions. Friendships were as important to Nancy as family-and she cultivated relationships with several women over decades: Oatsie Charles, KK Auchincloss, Toddie Findlay, Nancy Pierrepont, Brooke Astor, Kay Evans, Dorcas Hardin and Sherry Geyelin, to name just a few. Nancy is survived by her daughter Cameron Beebe, her grandsons Marcus and Chase Savage, her brother Edward Maguire, her stepsons Gordon, Boyden and Bernard Gray, and dozens of step-grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Lochland School in Geneva. New York http://www.lochlandinc.org/">www.lochlandinc.org/. The memorial service will be Thursday, September 12 at 11 a.m., at Christ Church in Georgetown.Nancy is survived by her daughter Cameron Beebe, her grandsons Marcus and Chase Savage, her brother Edward Maguire, her stepsons Gordon, Boyden and Bernard Gray, and dozens of step-grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Lochland School in Geneva. New York http://www.lochlandinc.org/. The memorial service will be Thursday, September 12 at 11 a.m., at Christ Church in Georgetown.