Advocate for arts, civic causes was 'small-town Santa Fe'

May 7—The City Different lost a relentless advocate for the arts, culture and social services when lifelong Santa Fean Marian Petchesky Silver died last month.

Those close to her say there's hardly a corner of Santa Fe she wasn't involved with in some way.

Silver, 89, who died in her home April 24, was known by many as the owner of a downtown department store, The Guarantee, alongside her late husband, Abe Silver, before it closed in 1988. Or they can recall her behind the help desk at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where she volunteered countless hours greeting visitors.

Renowned for her bright, splashy fashions and small stature, Marian Silver often was wrapped in beautiful scarves and colorful coats at events around town in the last several decades.

"Like I always said, my mom wouldn't miss an opening to a gas station," said her daughter Margaret Silver-Jones. "She loved to be in everything."

Silver was also was involved in the founding of Temple Beth Shalom, the first Jewish temple in Santa Fe.

In 2010, she and her husband were recognized as "tag-team ambassadors" for the arts in Santa Fe and New Mexico, receiving the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. Marian Silver also was involved with several museum governing boards.

She was a key donor, volunteer and chairperson for the Santa Fe Opera from the very beginning, and served as president of the Santa Fe Opera Guild. She helped put the opera "on the map," retired Santa Fe Opera Director Charles MacKay said.

Until the 1970s, The Guarantee, formerly known as The White House and originally owned by Silver's German immigrant grandparents, was one of a handful of women's stores in Santa Fe in an era when Cordova Road was considered the "south side" of town.

"The Guarantee was the one you wanted to shop at if you wanted the most up-to-date clothing from either coast," recounted family friend Peggy Catron. "In a time of shops that all looked the same, The Guarantee had its own personality."

Catron, daughter of the late June and Thomas Catron, said Silver was one of the last remaining members of a generation of Santa Feans who made a huge impact on the town before and after it experienced significant population growth in the 1970s and '80s.

"They took it as a point of civic pride that they would contribute to many organizations and make them successful along with their business," Peggy Catron said. "It was an essential part of being in small-town Santa Fe."

Friend Robert Glick, retired president and CEO of the St. Vincent Hospital Foundation, can hardly forget the first time he met Marian Silver at a dinner for the Santa Fe Opera board 32 years ago, when he started as director of resource development for the opera.

"I think they sat me next to her because they knew how everyone loves her, and I'm not immune to that," he said. "She was just such a genuinely sunny person and a warm person."

Those qualities made Silver an expert at fundraising for the causes she cared about, Glick noted.

Silver was also known for her outspokenness and sharp wit. Glick said she had near-encyclopedic knowledge of the characters and stories making up Santa Fe, and managed to tell hilarious jokes and stories about the place — but was never cruel.

"There are people in this community who were so wonderful in Santa Fe, and they all knew each other when Santa Fe was still small," Glick said. "Marian was the den mother for all of them."

In a 2018 mini-documentary for the Jewish Learning Channel, Silver recounted her youth as one of very few Jewish children in Santa Fe during her childhood in the mid-20th century.

"My life, both religious and social, was quite different," she said with a smile, donning bold turquoise earrings and a warm salmon-colored, zip-up coat. "It was nontraditional, but quite a wonderful way to grow up."

She added: "Santa Fe was truly, and still is, a utopia in many ways. It never seemed to matter what you had, but who you were as an individual."

Silver, the daughter of Barnett and Pauline Petchesky, graduated from Santa Fe High School and went to college in New Orleans, where she met her husband.

They had three children: John Silver, Margaret Silver-Jones and Carolyn Silver. Silver-Jones remembers her mother as an exquisite grandparent who made friends with people of all ages.

"They would all say she was not the knitting, cookie-making grandma," Silver-Jones said. "She just was very present. She got to know their friends."

Carolyn Silver said she feared her mother would suffer ill effects from the pandemic because she was such a social person. But she adjusted quickly, attending Zoom hangouts and lectures.

"I think that kind of connection got her through," Carolyn Silver said.

Marian Silver suffered losses during the pandemic. Her son died in November 2021 and her son-in-law, Silver-Jones' husband, Scott Jones, died in 2020.

"She lost her son and my husband," Silver-Jones said. "She was a trooper. Her motto was to live life."

A service in Marian Silver's honor will be held at 3 p.m. May 11 at Temple Beth Shalom. Masks are required.