Marcia Evelyn Connors, a longtime resident of North Eastham, died unexpectedly in her sleep on Feb. 27, 2025 at her home on Campground Road. The cause was abrupt cardiac arrhythmia. She was 73.
Marcia was born on Sept. 21, 1951 in Boston and lived briefly in Arlington. In 1954, she and her parents, John Francis Connors and Marjorie Elizabeth (Duffy) Connors, and brother, Joseph, moved to Campground Road where, except for several adventurous interludes, she lived for the rest of her life.
Marcia attended St. Joan of Arc Elementary School in Orleans, which closed in the mid-1960s; she graduated from Nauset High School in 1970 and soon became a founding member of the staff at the Latham Center in Brewster. She worked with people with Prader-Willi syndrome, a life-threatening genetic disorder with no known cure that manifests with insatiable appetite, mild to moderate developmental delays, and emotional and behavioral problems.
The 1970s was a busy decade for Marcia. After a couple of years at Latham, she enrolled at Cape Cod Community College and waitressed at local restaurants including the Lobster Pool in Eastham and Paradise Fruit in Orleans. She worked for the town of Eastham, helping with beach stickers in the summer.
College was not for her, and she succumbed to a passion for travel. She lived “a vagabond life,” said her brother, hitchhiking across the country and couch surfing at the homes of family and friends. She financed her travels by working temporary jobs. Eventually, she joined Joseph and his wife, Maria, in Anchorage, Alaska.
Marcia delighted in exploring the state, meeting other transplants, and touring the parks and wilderness areas from Alaska’s panhandle to Mt. McKinley National Park to Adak in the Aleutian Islands.
After warming up in Hawaii, Marcia decided to head even farther south. She wound up in New Zealand and stayed for more than a year; her friendly nature won her welcome into several families’ homes and an extended stretch of picking kiwis.
Having found so much fun in travel, she decided to make it a career and returned to Boston to train as a travel agent. Big city life, however, did not satisfy her need for connection with neighbors, family, and friends, so Marcia headed back to Eastham, where she and a partner founded the Portworld Travel Agency.
The work suited her well. She sampled exotic destinations, then returned home to help others go exploring. Soon, however, the internet altered the travel business, enabling people to plan and book their own trips.
Eventually, her travel agency closed, and she shifted to arranging plans for relatives, friends, and a devoted clientele who valued the personal attention. She loved helping others explore and was still arranging travel for clients when she died.
Marcia was not content doing just one thing. She read widely in her book club; she was an informal nanny; she provided companionship to the housebound elderly; she arranged elaborate birthday and holiday celebrations for cousins and friends; and she walked dogs. She welcomed her nephews, Brendan and William, when they made their annual trek to Eastham from British Columbia, and she did the same for the children of friends. In her mother’s final years, from age 90 to 93, she was her live-in caretaker in Florida.
Marcia is survived by her brother, Joseph Connors of Victoria, B.C., Canada.
“Marcia will be remembered fondly by her wide circle of friends and family in Eastham and throughout New England,” Joseph wrote. “She was always ready to lend a hand, cheer up the sad, and laugh and play with the happy. We will all miss her.”
In lieu of flowers, donations in Marcia’s memory can be made to the Latham Centers in Brewster.
