Marion Onderdonk Jacobson, 100, arts volunteer

Marion "Muzzie" Onderdonk Jacobson, 100, a volunteer in arts communities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, who outlived three husbands and two of her three children, died Saturday, Dec. 11, at Beaumont, a retirement community in Bryn Mawr.

Mrs. Jacobson, whose maiden name was Mathews, grew up in St. Louis and was tutored at home. In 1930, she married John A. Onderdonk, whom she had met at a party in Chicago.

She and her husband raised three children in Montclair, N.J., where she served as vice president and president of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra League and was cofounder of the orchestra's annual Young Artists Audition Competition. She was also on the board of the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton and was its secretary.

After John Onderdonk died in 1956, Mrs. Jacobson was married for 17 years to Frank R. Cole.

Widowed again in the 1970s, she moved to Bryn Mawr to be near her children and married James A. Jacobson, a retired international banker.

She remained active for several years with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the New Jersey State Museum and also became involved in other parts of the cultural scene. Mrs. Jacobson was a subscriber to the Friday afternoon Philadelphia Orchestra concerts and was a member of the orchestra's Main Line Delaware Committee. She was active with the Victorian Society of America, headquartered in Philadelphia, and supported fund-raisers for the Philadelphia Zoo and the restoration of the Fairmount Water Works.

Mrs. Jacobson was a lifelong member of the Junior League and was a member of the Merion Cricket Club and the Acorn Club in Philadelphia.

An accomplished artist and writer, she sketched and painted in oils, edited two cookbooks for charity fund-raisers, wrote children's stories, kept a journal, and wrote an account of her grandfather's capture by Indians in Missouri, daughter Patricia Onderdonk Pruett said.

Mrs. Jacobson's son, John Onderdonk Jr., a cardiologist, died in 1991, and the next year, James Jacobson died. Her daughter Adrianne Onderdonk Dudden, a graphic designer, died in 2005.

She coped with loss because she had a positive outlook and "believed the cup was always half full," said Pruett, a retired associate dean of Bryn Mawr College.

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Jacobson is survived by four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 22, at the Church of the Redeemer, 230 Pennswood Rd., Bryn Mawr. Mrs. Jacobson was a former member of the church altar guild. A reception will follow at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr, 601 N. Ithan Ave. Memorial donations may be made to the Fund for the Health Center, Beaumont at Bryn Mawr, 601 N. Ithan Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010.