Marjorie Guthrie, who used Marjorie Mazia as her professional name, was a dancer, dance teacher, and health science activist.
18 Facts About Marjorie Guthrie
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Marjorie Guthrie was the daughter of American Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt and the second of three wives of folk musician Woody Guthrie, to whom she was married from 1945 to 1953.
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Marjorie Guthrie was a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Company.
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Woody Guthrie began experiencing symptoms of Huntington's disease in the 1940s, although his condition remained undiagnosed until 1952.
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Marjorie Guthrie headed a Federal Commission for control of the disease in 1976 and 1977 and convinced President Jimmy Carter to form a Presidential Commission to study neurological diseases, including Huntington's.
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Marjorie Guthrie Greenblatt was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States, on October 6,1917, to Aliza Waitzman and Izadore Greenblatt.
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Marjorie Guthrie had three brothers - David, Herbert and Bernard - and one sister, Gertrude.
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In 1935, after graduation from the Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marjorie Guthrie moved to New York City on scholarship and joined the Martha Graham Dance Company.
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Marjorie Guthrie grew to become Graham's assistant for fifteen years and was the first company member invited to teach the Graham technique independently of Martha's own school.
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Marjorie Mazia met Woody Guthrie in 1942, when he was a member of the Almanac Singers, living at 430 6th Avenue, in Greenwich Village in a communal apartment playfully named Almanac House.
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Marjorie Guthrie was to appear in fellow Graham dancer Sophie Maslow's New Dance Group performance of "Folksay".
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Sophie had selected songs from this recording to choreograph to and when she found out that Woody Marjorie Guthrie was living in New York City, decided to invite him to play live on-stage for the performance.
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Marjorie Guthrie's school trained young dancers in Modern Dance and Ballet in the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
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Marjorie Guthrie received various misdiagnoses, but in 1952, it was finally determined that he was suffering from Huntington's disease.
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Marjorie Guthrie even taught him to communicate by blinking his eyes after he had lost control of his other muscles.
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Marjorie Guthrie headed a Federal commission for control of the disease in 1976 and 1977 and convinced President Jimmy Carter to form a Presidential Commission to study neurological diseases, including Huntington's.
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Marjorie Guthrie headed the public and governmental information committee of the National Committee for Research in Neurological and Communicative Disorders, was a member of the New York State Commission on Health Education and Illness Prevention and of the state's Genetic Advisory Committee, and was a lay member of the advisory council of the National Institute of General Medical Science.
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Marjorie Guthrie died of cancer on March 13,1983, in Manhattan, where she lived, aged 65.