Marjorie “Margie” Waddington, 76, of Robinson, IL, passed away on July 4, 2026, at the Linda E. White Hospice House in Evansville, IN. She was born on January 18, 1950, in Indianapolis, IN, arriving early alongside her twin sister. It was nothing short of a miracle that they both survived, and that early miracle proved to be merely the first in a life that kept defying the odds. She grew up in the Fountain Square neighborhood of Indianapolis and graduated from Decatur Central High School in 1969. Not long after, she married Lee Waddington on September 20, 1969.
Margie spent her working life in banking, moving through a number of different banks as a teller. The teller window suited her perfectly. It put her face to face with people all day long, and that was right where Margie wanted to be. She was outgoing and friendly, the kind of person who never had a bad word to say about anybody, and she’d take the time to actually talk to whoever stood in front of her. To Margie, a customer was never just the next in line. She loved people, loved helping them, and a job that most folks would have counted by the transaction, she counted by the conversations.
She’d have kept counting them, too, if her health had let her. In 1999, she was diagnosed with cancer, and at the beginning, they didn’t give her long, certainly not the years she went on to have. She retired to face it, and she beat it, staying cancer-free for the next twenty-seven years. It was one more time the numbers said one thing, and Margie said another. Those were years she spent right where she loved to be. Home. She kept a spotless house and was an incredible cook, known for her top-notch lasagna, teriyaki chicken wings, and macaroni her grandkids couldn’t get enough of.
Food like that has a way of filling a house with people, and hers usually was. She was especially close to her grandchildren, close enough that they took turns staying over with her and Lee, each getting their own stretch of days at Grandma’s table. Her hands were rarely still when it came to those kids. She crocheted afghans for all of her grandchildren and most of her great-grandchildren, each one made stitch by stitch with somebody particular in mind.
When the house was quiet, Margie sat down at the piano and played hymns. She played to an audience of one: the Lord. Sundays found her worshipping at the Oblong First Baptist Church, but her worship wasn’t confined to one day a week. She found every opportunity to talk to others about Jesus. To her, it came as easily as she talked about anything, because he was the reason for the rest of it: the friendliness, the patience, the time she gave people who needed it. That was faith as Margie lived it, out loud and close to the ground. And now, the same Lord who had sustained her time and again, who brought her early into this world against the odds and carried her through the cancer that was supposed to take her, had one more deliverance in store. On the Fourth of July, Margie found freedom from the bonds of this world and was welcomed home.
She is survived by her husband of 56 years, Lee Waddington; her daughters, Amy Santerre and Angie Marsh; her grandchildren, Tyler, Keifer, Jamie, Joslyn, Alyssa, Lindsey, and Sophie; nine great-grandchildren; her brother, Floyd Hyatt; her sister, Karen (LeRoy) Wilson; and her twin sister, Margaret “Peggy” McLand. She was preceded in death by her parents, Floyd and Margaret (Hash) Hyatt.
It was Margie’s wish to be cremated, and the Goodwine Funeral Home in Robinson is assisting the family at this time. A family-guided celebration of her life will be held in Brownsburg, IN, at a later date. Her remains will be buried in Floral Park Cemetery in Indianapolis.
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