Marjorie Rita (Osborne) Whorf

Marjorie Rita (Osborne) Whorf of Hingham died peacefully at home on Tuesday, August 10. She was 93, just shy of her 94th birthday.

Born in Boston on October 21, 1927, she was the daughter of John and Esther (Julian) Osborne. She grew up in the Codman Square neighborhood of Dorchester and graduated from Dorchester High School for Girls in 1945. She attended the Vesper George School of Art in Boston’s Back Bay and the Art Students League in New York City. For many summers she studied Impressionism with Henry Hensche at his Cape School of Art in Provincetown. She and her family later became longtime summer residents of Provincetown’s West End.

As a member of many art societies, associations and guilds, she was a lifelong exhibiting painter, working first in the watercolor medium and later in oils. She was also an accomplished decorator of small furniture pieces, working in the Peter Hunt, Quimper and rosemaling folk art styles. For many years she enjoyed a successful career as a fashion and accessory illustrator for major department stores including Filene’s, Jordan Marsh, Remick’s, the Outlet Company and the Apex Department Stores.

Wife of the late John Whorf and sister of the late Barbara Fortini and Joan Pappas, Marjorie is survived by three children, a daughter-in-law, son-in-law, six grandchildren and nieces and nephews. She was interred with her parents in the Blue Hill Cemetery in Braintree.

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