Delphine Marcus, radio broadcaster

Delphine Marcus, a former actress and art scholar who became a popular radio broadcaster, died on Wednesday, May 18, 2005, in Bethel Health Care Center after a long illness with cancer. She was 73 years old.

Ms. Marcus, a longtime Ridgefielder, had appeared on WMNR Fine Arts Radio for more than 20 years, and was famous for her soft, English accent and her warm, friendly style.

“Her programs fascinated listeners with a rich tapestry of classical music, Broadway and film music, and light jazz,” a station tribute said. “Delphine presented programs that were always spontaneous, done without script or notes, and peppered with many of the recordings from her personal collection. Because she was such a world traveler, her fascination with music of all cultures permeated her programs and made them exciting and interesting.”

Before settling down to radio, Ms. Marcus had led a varied and colorful life on four continents.

Delphine Costelloe Scott-Young was born on Nov. 20, 1931, in London, England. Her father died when she was an infant and her mother, Estelle, married an English diplomat, Charles Scott-Young. Her mother later became a pilot who ferried aircraft across the Atlantic during World War II.

Because her stepfather was often on overseas assignments in such places as Nigeria, Ms. Marcus spent much of her childhood in boarding schools and living with her grandparents. When she was nine, she narrowly escaped death in London when a bomb plowed through her grandparents’ house.

“I was in a four-poster bed in the middle of the house, and the ceiling fell in,” she told an interviewer in 1979. “It took firemen five and a half hours to dig me out.”

As a girl, she studied dance and eventually got an engagement with a ballet company. But she was also drawn to acting, and studied dramatic arts at the Royal Academy. She appeared in two films with Stuart Granger and went to Rome to act as the stand-in for Elizabeth Taylor in the barge scene in Cleopatra.

Ms. Marcus, who had an Egyptian great-grandmother and a French grandmother, studied at the Sorbonne and at Heidelberg University. In Germany, after becoming friends with several Iranians, she paid $50 for an old Chevrolet and set out for Teheran. She eventually spent two years in Iran where she studied and received a degree in Islamic art.

She traveled widely in the Middle East and northern Africa, spoke fluent Arabic and was often mistaken for an Arab. In Libya, where she worked for an American oil company, “I came to love the Beduouins and lived with them, camping in the desert,” she once told The Press. “I dressed as an Arab with their bangles and jewelry in the nose. I took care of their children, pounded meal, and learned to eat with the sheik, using only the right hand, thumb and two fingers.”

In 1963, she visited friends in the United States and wound up going to work as a translator for the New England Institute for Medical Research on Grove Street.

At a party, she met cartoonist Jerry Marcus and a month later, the two were married. They had two children, which led Ms. Marcus to become involved in the Ridgefield schools. In the 1970s she staged programs of music, mime and dance at Farmingville and Veterans Park Schools, and in 1975 was a founder of Productions for Young People, which brings cultural programs into the schools. PYP is still operating 30 years later.

Ms. Marcus was also a docent at the Aldrich Museum. She lectured there and throughout the region on Islamic art, and also gave historical and dramatic readings -- all the time continuing to delve into history, literature, music, and art.

“She just loved to study,” said her daughter, Jeremia Buechelmaier of Brookfield. “She loved to learn. She was just a wealth of information.”

It was at WMNR-FM in Monroe that Ms. Marcus perhaps found her greatest satisfaction. She joined the staff more than 20 years ago, when the station switched to an all-music format that is mostly classical, and had programs every Wednesday and Friday evening. She rarely missed a broadcast and, in winter, would often travel through snowstorms to reach the station.

One of her most popular features was her classical music quiz on the first Friday of the month. She also did  the weekly announcements on the Connecticut Cultural Calendar.

“Over the years she became very dear to her many admirers,” WMNR said. “So intimate and so personal were her style and presentation that many people felt a deep kinship with her, and her mailbox was always stuffed with fan letters.”

Ms. Marcus once told her audience, “I have the great luxury of being able to share my musical loves with you, the listener here at WMNR. What pleasure it brings me when you tell me how much you enjoyed a certain piece of music that you have just heard. I think we all can remember some event when music has played an important role in our lives. What would life be without music, and, of course, WMNR!”

Five years ago Ms. Marcus moved from Ridgefield to Brookfield to live with her daughter.

Besides Mrs. Buechelmaier, Ms. Marcus is survived by a son, Julius Marcus of Westport, and three grandchildren, Alexander, Philip, and Bridget Buechelmaier, all of Brookfield; and her former husband, Jerry Marcus.

No services are planned. However, in her memory WMNR, at 88.1 mHz, will be broadcasting a special program on Friday, May 27, from 6  to midnight. Listeners have been invited to share personal remembrances of her and her broadcasts via e-mail to music @ wmnr.org.

Her family has requested that donations may be made to Regional Hospice of Western Connecticut, 405 Main Street, Danbury, CT 06810. --J.S.