Elaine Spencer Marr

January 5, 1932 – October 24, 2020

Elaine Spencer Marr, 88, died October 24, 2020, in Albuquerque, from complications due to Alzheimer’s disease.  She was born on January 5, 1932, in Denver, Colorado.  There, she raised her young children and became an attorney.

Elaine’s zest for adventure led her, subsequently, to dwell in Salida, CO, Santa Fe and Socorro, NM.  She also resided for a time in Costa Rica, Tamil Nadu (India), and the Canary Islands, as well as exotic locales in China and Africa.

All who knew Elaine can doubtless recount her hosting warm and gracious get-togethers wherever she called home.  She developed friendships from all walks of life and often swapped lawyering skills for sides of beef, ceramics, and carpentry projects.

Lanie was known to exchange lodging with opera singers for private performances held in her living room.  The household often bustled with friends, neighbors and a colorful cast of characters, welcomed merrily by her and Elliot’s bouncing West Highland terriers.

Elaine worked primarily out of their historic Socorro home during the past few decades, amongst a beautiful and eclectic mix of family heirlooms and unique garage-sale finds.  Her keen intellect was exercised by working passionately on projects of value.

She designed everything from room remodels to her signature jewelry.  Her love of reading and films was reflected in the overflowing bookshelves that coursed throughout the rambling adobe house.  Ay, the gracious Elaine Marr will be sorely missed!

Survivors include her husband of 35 years, the physicist Elliott Moore; the four children of her previous marriage to Richard Bernick:  Philip Bernick, Amy Bernick Sheridan, Margaret Stephenson, and Andrew Bernick;  grandchildren are Wesley Sheridan, Zachary Stephenson, Nathan Sheridan, Nicholas Stephenson, Tess Bernick and Galen Bernick.  She is also survived by her brother Jon Marr of Socorro, half-brothers Bill and Bob Stark, and a great-grandchild, Gracie Guzman.

The family asks friends to honor Elaine’s memory and thoughtfully donate time or treasure to whatever progressive causes she would have deemed worthy.  Arrangements were through Riverside Funeral Home of Albuquerque.

El Defensor Chieftain