Lucille Enid Larkin

Lucille E. Larkin, 85, of Bryn Mawr, peacefully passed away on Monday, April 15, 2024.  Born in Butler, Pennsylvania on January 22, 1939, she was the daughter of the late William Henry Larkin and Mary Trimbur Larkin. Lucille, along with her sisters Mary Ellen (“Mel”) and Kate, were raised in Butler Pennsylvania by their resilient mother, after her father's untimely death when she was 8 years old. 

Lucille graduated from Mount Aloysius High School, and then went to Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York.  It was at Marymount where she deepened her love of theater.  She spent her junior year abroad at the University of the Sorbonne in Paris and took classes with Marcel Marceau, the famous Mime, to further hone her acting and sense of stage presence. She returned to Marymount, Tarrytown for her Senior year and served as class president. After graduation she returned to Paris to teach English to the French students enrolled at the Marymount academy located there.

After her time in France, Lucille returned to Butler before moving to Washington, DC in the 1960s.  In Washington D.C., Lucille became an on-air journalist for Time/Life Broadcast radio and TV news, where she covered the White House, Congress and various agencies, and six-year stringer correspondent for Time Magazine, Life, People. She was a field producer of political promotion films with Charles Guggenheim and worked on two national Presidential campaign staffs. Lucille started her public relations career as Consumer Affairs Director for the PR firm of Carl Byoir and Associates (later Hill and Knowlton) and Outreach Director for Ford Foundation Energy Policy Project. She was Vice President for Public Affairs for the National Cable Television Association, initiating the ACE Awards to recognize the potential of early cablecasting of the fledging industry. She then founded Larkin and Company Marketing Communications, where she supported the launch of new cable TV programmers and consulted with companies seeking cable franchises. One branch of the company was involved in association management. Through this work, she identified a need for women to be mentored and recognized in the fledgling cable industry. To meet this need, in 1979, she founded Women in Cable and Telecommunications, an organization which has grown to more than 10,000 members. In recognition of her contribution to the industry, the National Cable Television Association awarded her the Vanguard award in 1987.

In 1992, Lucille married Paul Macdonald, a widower with four children, and moved to Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. In her new home she continued to work in the cable industry, public relations, and then had a career in real estate. Her love of the theater continued to be expressed by her participation in local theater, serving on the board of directors of two local theaters companies, including Tiny Dynamite Productions and The Lantern Theater.

Lucille was a longstanding member of the Philadelphia Country Club, the Newcomers Club, and The Cosmopolitan Club of Philadelphia.  She was an avid birder and would frequently go birding with friends, her husband, her grandchildren, and solo.  She made birding a part of all of her travels whether it be to Costa Rica, Europe, Cape May, Mexico or the backyard. 

Lucille, a Roman Catholic, was a member of the parish of St. John Vianney in Gladwyne, where she frequently sang in the choir and served as a lecture. Lucille was quick with a joke and famous for her limerick’s and poems at special events.  Lucille was blessed with the ability to make friends wherever she went and enjoyed spending time with these friends throughout her life.  

Lucille lost her husband Paul in December 2022, while she was recovering from a serious illness. In January 2024, her sister Mary Ellen Shewalter passed.  She is survived by: her sister Kathleen Eleanor Larkin; her four stepchildren Edward P. Macdonald (Megan), Margaret D. Macdonald (Brian), Teresa C Macdonald, and Aindrea Tyl Pattisall (Jay);  her five grandchildren, Emma, Owen, Josie, Simone, and Rose;  and her seven nieces and nephews and their children: Mary Elizabeth Goodwin, William Larkin Shewalter (Rene), Paul Francis Shewalter (Samantha), Bruce Charles Shewalter (Wendy), Christopher Ellis Shewalter, Barry Edward Shewalter and Suzanne Margaret Shewalter-Brown (Travis), Jacob, Joshua and Brucie, Colleen and Erin, William, Frank, Joey and Mickey, and T. Nick and Malcolm.   

A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at St. John Vianney Roman Catholic Church, 350 Conshohocken State Road Gladwyne, PA 19035.  The Mass will be live streamed at: https://masslivestream.com/churches/sjvgladwyne.  Family will be receiving guests starting at 9:00 am prior to Mass.  A reception will follow at Triple Crown, 593 E Lancaster Ave, St. David’s, PA 19087.  In lieu of flowers, donations in Lucille’s name can be made to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at   https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/.

Lucille will be laid to rest privately at Calvary Cemetery in Butler, Pennsylvania on May 31, 2024, followed by a celebration of life at the Butler Country Club.