In Memory: Marcia Webb, 82, Former Assistant To Al Gore

Photo credit: Roswell Funeral Home

The following obituary was submitted by Roswell Funeral Home:

Marcia Jane Yandle Webb passed away at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta on Wednesday, Feb. 4 after a long illness. She was 82 years old. Mrs. Webb was the widow of Dr. Philip Carlen Webb of Cookeville, Tennessee. She is survived by her daughter Lucy Jane Webb and her son, Phillip Carlen Webb, Jr.

Mrs. Webb was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, the daughter of Nellie Mae Roper and Chas Brown Yandle. Jr. She attended the St. Bernard Academy for girls, where she was president of the Glee Club and the Athletic Club, and was named Homecoming Queen her senior year for Father Ryan High School. Marcia played competitive tennis and was a multiple champion in the middle Tennessee amateur tournaments. She was a regular columnist for the St. Bernard Courier and the University Eagle, and wrote a column on tennis for the Herald Citizen Newspaper.

Mrs. Webb was a devout Catholic and attended the Tennessee Technological University where she earned her Bachelor and Master Degrees in Physical Education. She was a member of St. Thomas Aquinas in Cookeville, Tennessee, and Cathedral of Incarnation in Nashville. At Tennessee Tech, Marcia was elected May Queen and Homecoming Queen and invited to join Kappa Delta Sorority. She was the first woman to be admitted into the “T” Club, an athletic club at Tennessee Tech reserved for male athletes. Mrs. Webb later went on to coach girl’s basketball at Tennessee Tech and at White Station High School in Memphis, Tennessee. She taught ballroom dancing, ballet, folk and modern technique at the University.

Marcia Webb met her Methodist husband, Philip Carlen Webb, at Tennesse Tech, where he was a pre-med student and played football. After his service in the Air Force, they married at the Cathedral of Incarnation and settled down to raise Lucy and Phillip Carlen, Jr. in Cookeville, Tennessee, where Dr. Webb opened a dental practice.

Mrs. Webb was an active participant in the community. She was one of the original founders of the Theater Cookeville, a local community theater group, and was a choreographer in Crossville’s Tennessee Regional Theater and Community Theater. Mrs. Webb was a member of the St. Thomas Aquinas Choir and was manager of the Tennessee Tech Symphony Orchestra and the Tech Players. In 1976, Marcia Webb joined John Maddox of Cookeville as grassroots campaign managers for former Vice President Al Gore, who was then 28-years old and running for congress in the 4th Congressional district in Tennessee. He won, and Mrs. Webb went to Washington, D.C. as Mr. Gore’s executive assistant and office manager.

On March 23, 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed Mrs. Webb to the Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, noting her “integrity and ability.” After Dr. Webb was tragically killed in an automobile accident, Mrs. Webb returned to Washington D.C., to manage The Georgetown Symphony.

Marcia Webb was a member of The National Society of Fund Raising Executives, earning her certified CFRD as one of the few national fundraisers for charitable and non-profit organizations. Mrs. Webb raised millions of dollars for such organizations as the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, in Vienna, Virginia; The Civil War Battlefield Foundation; The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Washington Ballet. She was Director of Development for the Washington Performing Arts Society and most recently was a certified National Fundraiser for the University of Tennessee Dental School in Memphis, Tennessee.

In her senior years, she retired and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to be near her son’s family and her three grandchildren.

Outgoing, vivacious, intellectual, fun-loving and charitable, Marcia Webb’s positive spirit and smile were infectious. She continued to be involved in civic duty, the performing arts and classical music throughout her life. Mrs. Webb watched Mass on television and developed a deep admiration for Pope Francis. She was devoted to her 16-year-old dog, Peanut, and supported the Jack Russell Society, which protects and finds homes for lost Jack Russell terriers.

Mrs. Webb’s daughter, Lucy, is an award-winning actress and producer living in Los Angeles. Her son, Phillip Carlen Webb, Jr., is a golf professional in Alpharetta, Georgia. Mrs. Webb is also survived by her three grandchildren,
Phillip Carlen Webb, III, James Addison Webb, and Bailey Jane Webb; her sister, Ann Dixon Newell, of Memphis, Tennessee; former daughter-in-law Laura Lee Webb, of Alpharetta, six nieces and nephews and two dogs, Peanut and Rocky.

A funeral mass will be said at The Cathedral of Incarnation, 2015 West End Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 10 a.m. She will be laid to rest in Cookeville Tennessee, next to her beloved husband Phillip Carlen Webb at 3pm. Flowers accepted.

Donations in her name can be made to The Washington Performing Arts Society and the Tennessee Technological University Music Department/Bryan Symphony Orchestra.