Marian Eugenia Wheldon Chambers
October 6, 1929 – January 28, 2012

Marian Wheldon Chambers, 82, of Griffin, formerly of East Point, died peacefully in her sleep and left this earth to begin her spiritual journey on Saturday, January 28, 2012. Marian was preceded in death by her precious son Curtis Paul Chambers; beloved grandson Michael Lee Chambers; parents Lt. Col. Maurice Austin Wheldon and Leah Marguerite Shay Wheldon; sisters Helen (Wheldon) Rossman and Gail (Wheldon) Blechinger; and brother Chief Petty Officer Maurice Austin Wheldon, Jr. She leaves behind to cherish her memory, acerbic wit, occasionally ribald humor and stubbornness, her children and their spouses: daughters Linda (Chambers) and Thomas Ledbetter, Leah (Chambers) and Barry Hager, and Leslie (Chambers) and Kevin Champion; sons Charles, Jr. (Chip) and Margaret (Peggy) Wiley Chambers, and Sergeant First Class Christopher Chambers and Tonya Beach Chambers; eight grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; very special friend Kevin Fitzgerald; and a number of nieces, nephews, relatives-in-law and dear friends.

Throughout her life, Marian had a deep love and respect for all things military, with a brother who attended Georgia Military Academy and gave his life as a Radarman in the Naval Air Corps, a father who achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in his long Army career, and son Chris, who will retire from the Army in the coming months. She had fond memories of assisting the war effort while accompanying her mother, a member of the Women’s Army Corps during WWII, on such activities as rolling bandages and collecting scrap metal.

Marian graduated from College Park High School and from Lagrange College with a degree in Drama. She attended summer stock at Jekyll Island, volunteered at Theater of the Stars and Theater Atlanta, and managed and directed the East Point Theater Guild. Though her aspirations of being a Hollywood starlet were interrupted by marriage and motherhood, Marian remained involved in the community. While working for the Suburban Reporter in 1965, she was present in the press box at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium when Mayor Ivan Allen presented the key to the city to the Beatles; she served as make-up artist to Xernona Clayton on The Xernona Clayton Show on WAGA in the late 1960s; and she directed several Senior plays at Headland High School in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

While a keypunch operator at International Harvester, she met Charles Chambers. They married and had six children, the youngest of whom was special needs, and enjoyed many adventures together before divorcing in 1979. Befitting the Libra sign under which she was born, Marian enjoyed being the center of attention. She enjoyed writing, playing cards and games, has been known to read a palm or two, and invented several games stemming from her interest in the Zodiac. She was an eccentric and, having had hard times herself, would pick up a hitchhiker or take in a friend who needed help.

Though she enjoyed the limelight in her younger years, Marian’s greatest jobs in life were those of Mom and Granny. She carted kids to many a band concert, cookie sale, Little League game, or newspaper route; volunteered with the Girl Scouts and PTA; and car-pooled exceptional children to various schools around Metro Atlanta. Resourceful and clever, she often burned the midnight oil sewing lace onto prom dresses or fabricating a prize-winning Halloween costume out of scrap material, and worked various graveyard shift jobs to be home with her children during the day. In recent years, she helped raise her grandsons Michael and Paul, and one of her greatest joys in life was seeing Paul graduate from high school in 2007. Special thanks to Paul who served as his Granny’s caretaker during the last years of her life.