Marion Wadsworth Cannon

Marion Babette Wadsworth Cannon (November 4, 1905 – May 29, 1996) was an American poet and civil rights activist in North Carolina.

Early life and education Wadsworth was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, the daughter of Charles Franklin Wadsworth and Sarah (Sadie) James Hirshinger Wadsworth. Her mother's family was Jewish; businessman and philanthropist Dannie Heineman was a relative. Her mother, a former teacher, remarried to Edmund Pendleton Coles in 1914. She graduated from Barnard College in 1927; she was president of her class, editor of the college yearbook, During World War II she worked for the American Red Cross in Charlotte. In 1985, she was one of the first recipients of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Medallion Award, given by the City of Charlotte.

In widowhood, Cannon briefly ran a business, Services Unlimited. Late in life, she took creative writing classes, and began publishing her poetry, which was collected in three books.

Publications Another Light (1974), including "Inheritance" Second Wind: New Poems (1977) Collected Poems (1980)

Personal life Wadsworth married her second cousin, Martin Luther Cannon Jr., in 1936; in keeping with her unique style, she wore a black and white tweed suit at her wedding. They had a daughter, Carol, who married archaeologist Jefferson Chapman in 1965. Martin L. Cannon died in 1957, and Carol Chapman died from colon cancer in 1985.

Marion Cannon listed her religious affiliation as "druid", and described herself as a witch in her later years. She listed her hobbies as needlepoint and smoking in a 1983 profile. after several years in a Charlotte nursing home with "severe dementia".