Individual Details

Death

Memorial service was in Pennsylvania;
Obituary By Suzanne Gordon, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER POSTED: October 30, 1996
Lucy Hayes Lawhorne, 70, a retired probation officer and wife of former Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Edward S. Law-horne, died Friday at White Horse Village in Edgmont.
Mrs. Lawhorne, who was raised in Swarthmore, was the great-granddaughter of President Rutherford B. Hayes, who was elected in 1876. She graduated from George School in Newtown, Bucks County, and Swarthmore College in 1948.
Judge Lawhorne said his wife was the reason he became a Democrat, a move that led to his appointment by Democratic governors to fill vacancies on the bench three times.
He was a Republican attending Swarthmore College when he met his wife, who was a birthright Quaker.
``She studied me and I studied her,'' the judge said. ``She converted me from being an old-line Republican to a liberal Democrat - and it stuck.''
The couple married 48 years ago, when he was a law student at Dickinson College in Carlisle. He now practices law in Media.
Mrs. Lawhorne worked as a probation officer for Delaware County Juvenile Court for almost 20 years until her retirement in the early 1970s.
The Lawhornes had lived in Nether Providence for 45 years before moving to White Horse Village.
She had been active with the Fellowship House, Friends Third Street Meeting, and served as a volunteer at Manchester House, a nursing home in Media. She had also served on the board of directors for HARNED, a residential facility in Moylan.
As her children were growing up, she was active in the Girl Scouts, Parent-Teacher Association and other community groups.
Besides her husband, Mrs. Law-horne is survived by a son, Scott; daughters, Sarah ``Sally'' Lawhorne and Katherine Kelley; two brothers; and four grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Nov. 16 at the Friends Third Street Meeting in Media.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Meeting, Third Street, Media, Pa. 19063.