Maire Steadman
1929-2016
Interment at Westall Park, Natural Burial Ground, Holberrow Green, Worcestershire, B96 6JY
Tuesday 26th January 2016 at 12 noon.
Below are the words spoken at Marie’s interment. Please feel free to leave any comments or messages of your own to Maire at the bottom of this webpage.
If any friends or colleagues would like to make a donation in Maire’s memory, please donate to the Dogs Trust – a charity close to her heart: https://www.dogstrust.org.uk
Maire Jean Steadman was born on 3rd December 1929 in Ilford, Essex and died in her beloved Stratford Upon Avon on 11th January 2016.
Maire attended Oxford University where she fell in love with that city and gained her MA and later began her career with IBM in London where she made and maintained many lifelong friendships.
Maire very much enjoyed travelling the globe and she was particularly influenced by the colours and culture of India where she lived and worked for a while. This was reflected in her considerable dressmaking skills in creating her own wardrobe, decorating her own home and was also put to good use at Questors Theatre in West London where she was a member during the nineteen sixties and seventies.
In the mid eighties Maire was approached by the RSC to launch the Friends of the RSC and as Honorary Organiser, she built up a huge UK wide membership, arranging many fundraising events in Stratford, London and regional theatre visits. She was particularly good at persuading directors and actors to give talks to the members and some of these became firm personal friends of hers. The Friends organisation thrives today and now has an American branch.
Once retired, Maire became a regular visitor to the Animal Rescue centre in Ardens Grafton and she adopted several dogs over the years giving them a home and caring for them, including most recently, Frisbee and Jack. These became her trademark around the town.
Maire studied watercolour painting and Japanese art and set up her own artist’s studio in her Broad Street garden and became very accomplished as in all areas of her life.
An avid theatregoer, Maire was a regular stander at the back of the old Royal Shakespeare Theatre auditorium, watching and sometimes revisiting every production and also supported the Shakespeare Globe in London. She always participated in the annual Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations in Stratford and created a London version at the Barbican for the London branch of the Friends.
Maire was an extraordinary individual and a wonderful loyal friend to many. We shall miss her.
Graham Sawyer & Graham Sykes
A Letter to Maire
To Maire, thank you for showing me the beauty of independence, kindness, knowledge, eccentricity, thought and humour. Thanks you for making me laugh so much that I cannot meet eyes with you out of fear of wetting myself, thank you for showing me that I can never read enough books, and that I should never close my eyes to new ideas, and thank you for teaching me never to take things too seriously. Thank you for the fact that even though others may have disagreed, you still believed the world to be a beautiful place; a seed that you sowed within all those around you.
Walt Whitman wrote in the introduction of ‘Leaves of Grass’ that ‘this is what you shall do; love the earth and the sun and the animals, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labour to others, hate tyrants, have patience and indulgence toward the people, re-examine everything you have been told at school or church or any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.’
I cannot help but think of you.
Emily
From Cymbeline by William Shakespeare.
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, Nor the furious winter’s rages; Thou thy worldly task has done, Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages: Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Fear no more the frown o’ the great; Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke; Care no more to clothe and eat; To thee the reed is as the oak: The sceptre, learning, physic, must All follow this, and come to dust.
Fear no more the lightning flash, Nor the all-dreaded thunder stone; Fear not slander, censure rash; Thou hast finished joy and moan: All lovers young, all lovers must Consign to thee, and come to dust.
No exorciser harm thee! Nor no witchcraft charm thee! Ghost unlaid forbear thee! Nothing ill come near thee! Quiet consummation have; And renowned be thy grave!
Read by Christopher Saul at Maire’s interment
The last of the Ilford Steadmans to go. Maire I never knew you terribly well, the sad breakdown of your relationship with my Father meant that your visits were few and far between but I always felt huge excitement at your presence when you did come to visit. You were always so glamorous and different to anyone I knew – a real force of nature and the gifts you brought us! I particularly remember the Brass Tibetan finger decorations and straw hat which were worn a great deal around the house by me. You will be missed hugely in Stratford Upon Avon I am sure and I am only sorry that I could not get out to see you at the end. You lived an amazingly full life and I am very proud to have called you my Aunt.
I met Marie while studying psychology at Ealing WEA. We went to the Central London Psychology Society a coulple of times. I worked with her on the LAST EMPERORS at The Questors in 1971 where she taught me much about lighting on the STRAND lighting board. She was a witness at my wedding in 1972. After psychology I would give her a lift back to her flat in Mattock Lane Ealing where would sometimes discuss psychology and philosophy. She was a great and exciting person to know.