MorseLife Resident Marjorie Beall Celebrates 104 Years of Living Palm Beach History

MorseLife Tradition resident Marjorie Beall celebrates her 104^th birthday on August 10, 2024, along with a remarkable lifetime during which she experienced dozens of historical milestones and the dramatic metamorphosis of Palm Beach County into a major metropolis.

“It was the land of sunshine and oranges,” she recalls with a wistful remembrance of the carefree days she spent swimming in the ocean and growing up amid the unspoiled beauty and splendor of wealthy Palm Beach Island, where her parents worked as caretakers for one of the mansions there in the 1930s.

Still joyful and fiercely independent today, Marjorie credits her longevity to years of swimming, lots of fruits and vegetables, hot tea and a voracious enjoyment of reading murder mysteries.  Her good health translated into the good fortune of being able to live independently in her own home until age 103 with the help of her caregiver, Magda.

And while she’s dismayed by the frustrations of old age, she loves her new life at MorseLife, where Magda was also welcomed.  She still reads, participates in the many activities there and enjoys delicious meals in the dining room with other residents.

“Everyone is so kind and helpful,” she said.  “They put flowers in my window in the morning.  It’s very uplifting.”

For her only child, Jim, the peace of mind knowing his mother is well cared for by compassionate people in beautiful surroundings is priceless.

“We are so pleased she’s at MorseLife,” he said.

Marjorie’s British father, who was wounded and gassed as a World War I prisoner of war, had made his way together with her mother to Australia and then New Zealand (where Marjorie was born) in search of a warmer climate and better health over 102 years ago.  While in England visiting family, they overheard someone talking about the “wonders of Florida” and a land “more fertile than the Nile” in Palm Beach County.  Together with two-year-old Marjorie and her older brother in tow, they took a boat from England to Havana, Cuba, and then boarded Henry Flagler’s ferry to Key West.

They purchased property near Belle Glade based on just photographs, only to discover it was nothing but swampland when they finally arrived.  Thankfully they found work and began the difficult road to recovering their loss.

Marjorie, who graduated Palm Beach High School in 1938 and worked at a Worth Avenue real estate office, was soon married to a U.S. Air Force electronics officer who was hired to set up an Air Force base in Boca Raton near the Bath & Tennis Club, which was used at the time to house military employees.

After World War II, Marjorie and her husband built a home on a lake in southwest Palm Beach, where she remained after he passed away until a year ago when she moved to MorseLife.

“I’ve been very thankful for all of my life,” she said.