Marion Hundley Guest Nichols

Marion Hundley Guest Nichols died on Saturday, August 22, 2020. She was born on August 21, 1929 in Anderson, South Carolina, the eldest daughter of Walter Cleveland and Virginia McCoy Guest. She attended Anderson Girls’ High School and St. Mary’s School in Raleigh, NC before graduating from Hollins College, as had her mother and her grandmother, Susan Quarles Hundley. Marion Hundley Guest and Sidney Spalding Nichols met at a picnic in the 1940’s in Anderson after the Nichols moved there from Lowell, Massachusetts. They were married in 1951 and lived in Greer and Union before settling in Spartanburg, South Carolina. They raised three children and were active parents at the Spartanburg Day School, members of the Church of the Advent, and supporters of Mobile Meals and The SC School for the Deaf and Blind. Our mother’s family had deep roots in the Piedmont and in the early construction of many buildings still standing. William Guest initially lived in the Pendleton District in 1787, with descendants settling in northern Greenville County. Clingman M. Guest, Marion’s grandfather, born in 1862, became an architect in northern Greenville County before moving to Anderson, SC in 1888, where he built cotton mills and houses. Clingman married Mary Eugenia Holland and had two sons, Walter Cleveland Guest, Marion’s father, and Romeo Holland Guest, her uncle. They joined their father in C.M. Guest and Sons and built numerous commercial and institutional buildings across the South. Marion Hundley Guest Nichols was preceded in death by her parents and her husband, Sidney Spalding Nichols who died in 2003. She is survived by her children, Virginia Guest Nichols, Caroline Spalding Nichols, Charles Guest Nichols and his wife, Beth, and their children, Virginia McCoy Nichols and John Francis Nichols; and her sister, Virginia Guest Ferriday. Our mother left a few words describing her own life in a brief entry in a Hollins College Alumnae publication in 2000: “Talk about prosaic: no professional career; no awards in the volunteer world; no developed artistic talent (not my fault as I have no talent to develop); no living in far away, exotic lands. Instead, I have lived my whole life within 70 miles of my birthplace. I have three wonderful children and two “grands” but no MacArthur or Nobel prizes in sight. However, such a plain life has much to offer. Sid and I, and especially our children, have benefited from years of the strong and good influence of their grandparents close at hand. Also, we have lived in familiar circumstances with lasting friendships. With the usual connections to local schools, social organizations and our church, it has been a sort of small southern life, even today… I have slowed down some, but we have had wonderful trips and I do not mind one bit.” A family ceremony will be held at the Episcopal Church of the Advent, Cloister Columbarium