When she was fourteen, Marcy (Coates) Canavan began dating Richard Canavan, with whom she raised Kelly, Sean, and Emily Canavan, and helped raise their grandson Milo. She and her four siblings – Peter, Matt, Anna, and Elizabeth – grew up in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Washington, DC. In 1973, when she was 20 and had finished up at George Washington University and Dumbarton, she and Rick moved to Accokeek, Maryland, to live a fairly self-sufficient life together. They built a gorgeous home with their ow
Marcy has been an activist, at-home mother, small business owner (Marlene’s Herb Cottage), bookkeeper, programmer, elected member of the Prince George’s County Democratic Central Committee and Board of Education, Executive Director of the Maryland Education Coalition, an appeals officer, a farmer, a Board member of The AMP Creeks Council, and an Ambassador for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. She has been a lifelong advocate for those who need a voice, and a maternal figure for countless souls at loose e
She read her kids books, sang in the car, danced in the kitchen, made vats of cookie dough, rewired outlets, sewed Halloween costumes, was the pit crew for Team Terrific, raised giant koi, took her kids camping at the beach, made multiple sclerosis all but glamorous, put the ribbons and glitter into Xmas, has given her extra plants to the National Botanical Gardens and Arboretum, and has been unparalleled in her ability to make even very small things significant and exciting. She has fought for us, again a