Marcelle S. Tennenbaum

Marcelle Simone Tennenbaum, of Columbia, died April 19, 2009, after a long illness. She was 68.

She was born on Oct. 16, 1940, in Paris, France. Her family faced many troubles during the German invasion in World War II and for four years hid from occupying forces in central France. She spent time in a recovery institute in the Pyrenees for surviving war children after the war.

She was a graduate of the Institute Lepol Bellan Business School, in Paris, and immigrated to the United States in 1960.

After a six-month courtship, she married Robert Tennenbaum in 1961 and settled in Washington, D.C. The family then moved to Baltimore.

Mrs. Tennenbaum and her family became some of the earliest residents to move to the new city of Columbia in 1967. An active member of the young community, she served as a special Exhibit Center tour guide -- guiding foreign planners and architects visiting the new city and was the chairperson for the Patrons Dinner Fundraising event and the Opening Night Banquet for the Baltimore Symphony at the Post Pavilion.

She saw the importance of The Mall in Columbia as a central gathering place in the community and began an association with the mall and the Rouse Co. She first worked as a sales associate and visual merchandiser at the Hecht Co. and later at D.M. Gilson Designer Sports Shop where she managed and produced fashion shows for career groups in Howard County.

From 1984 until her retirement in 1995, she worked with The Rouse Co., where she managed specialty retail markets for the Columbia mall, White Marsh Mall, and Owings Mills Mall, The Shops at National Place in Washington, D.C., and for South Street Seaport, in New York City. For the Lexington Market's 200th she coordinated the weeklong celebration in downtown Baltimore for the 1984 grand opening of the Lexington Market Arcade Expansion.

She was the chairperson for the Baltimore Symphony's first fundraising Reveillon, a New Year's event in 1980. In 1983, she was a consultant to a PR firm coordinating fashion festivals Career '83 for Market Center in downtown Baltimore for the benefit of United Way.

Along with her husband, Robert, she enjoyed traveling and returned often to visit her family in Paris. She loved knitting, playing mahjongg, learning and practicing Reiki, growing flowers and spending time with her grandchildren.

She is survived by her husband of almost 49 years, Robert Tennenbaum; her daughter, Ann Levene, of South Florida, and daughter, Eve Margol and son-in-law, Bill Margol, of Olney; four grandsons, Brandon, Alex, Cole and Sam; two sisters, Yvonne and Helen, of Florida, and a brother, Daniel, of Paris.

A funeral service was held April 21, 2009, at the Columbia Memorial Park, in Clarksville.

Memorial donations may be made to the Palm Beach School for Autism, 1199 W. Lantana Road, #19, Lantana, FL 33462.

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