Married, on Wednesday evening, Sept. 19th, at the residence of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. F. S. McGee, on North Dubuque Street, by the Rev. T. J. Dow, Pastor of the first Christian church, Miss Grace McGee, to Mr. Preston C. Coast, both of this city. The wedding ceremony was witnessed by numerous friends from the city, and abroad, and the young couple, were the recipients of numerous beautiful, and valuable testimonials of esteem, from a large circle of admiring friends. The future residence of the newly married pair, will be at No. 530, North Clinton Street, after Nov. 1st.
Daily State Press (Iowa City, Iowa), September 23, 1894
William O. Coast and Miss Maude Cleaveland Kingsbury were married last evening, at 7:30 o'clock.
The ceremony was performed by Rev. Dr. Williams, in Trinity Church. The auditorium of the sacred edifice was decorated prettily in palms and flowers, and the altar and chancel were particularly pleasing in their floral garb.
The best man was Preston C. Coast, brother of the groom, and the bridesmaids were Misses Alice McGee and Sadie Hess. The maid of honor was Miss Ethel Swire. Dainty little Marjorie Coast, all in white, was the flower girl. The ushers were Cleaveland Kingsbury and George Remley.
The bride was attired in a beautiful gown of white crepe de chine, with lace trimmings. She carried her mother's prayer book.
The bridesmaid and maid of honor wore costumes of pure white, with green girdles to add a bit of color fetchingly.
After the ceremony, the bridal party repaired to the home of the groom's parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Coast, where a wedding supper was served, the guests being kinsfolk of the contracting parties, almost exclusively. Guests from abroad were Mds. Louise Culver, St. Louis; Holbrook Cleaveland, St. Louis; E. A. Murphy, Vinton; L. M. Butler, Chicago; H. A. Kelley, Moline; Cleaveland Kingsbury, Newton; Mrs. Craig Wright, Des Moines; Mrs. C. C. Coldren, Chicago.
Mr. and Mrs. Coast left last night, amid a deluge of rice, from scores of friends, to St. Louis via Chicago. They wil be at home after December 1, on North Dubuque street, occupying the onetime home of former alderman, W. H. Graff.
The united lives of these two begin under most auspicious circumstances, if the hopes and prayers of a legion of devoted friends count for aught. The groom is a former student of the university, and was major of the S. U. I. battalion. He is a popular member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and is a member of the staff of Coast & Son's clothing store.
He is possessed of those impulses to energy and activity that make for success, and lend substance to the prophecies of his friends that he is destined to achieve in the commercial world the laudable ambition that stirs him to follow in the footsteps of his father and brother.
Miss Kingsbury is an alumna of the university, and in that institution she attained the graces of higher education and broader culture that enhance the gifts of nature and the adornments of rare home training. She has a clearly-marked place in Iowa City's social circles, and in the highest will hear none but golden wishes.
Iowa City Daily Press, Oct. 25, 1904
Beautiful Church Wedding Unites Two Prominent Iowa City Families
Beautful and distinctive in its array of rainbow colors in soft pastel shades, the wedding of Miss Marjorie Eames Coast, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Preston Coast, and Mr. Donald McClain, son of the late Chief Justice and Mrs. Emlin McClain, was impressively solumnized at the First Presbyterian church on Wednesday evening at 8 o'clock. Innumerable palms furnished a rich background of foliage, against the chancel rail and mad a charming effect with the great masses of color of the large bouquets of gladioli, gracefully arranged in tall baskets in the foreground. The flowers were delicate shades of pink, white and lavendar, and blended beautifully with the gowns of the bride's attendants.
Miss Miriam Chase, a sorority sister of the bride, and an accomplished organist, played a twenty-minute program of nuptial music preceding the ceremony and while the company of two hundred guests assembled at the church. At the first notes of the weddding march, two little girls, Miss Virginia Wylie, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. D. W. Wylie of New York City, and Miss Louise Coast, daughter of Hon. and Mrs. William O. Coast, in dainty frocks of pale blue and yellow, stretched ribbons to form the aisle for the bride and her attendants. They were followed by the four ushers, Hon. William O. Coast, Mr. Henning Larsen, of Iowa CIty, Mr. Albert Currier, of Cleveland, and Mr. Ralph Reed, of Des Moines.
Mrs. Henning Larsen, a sister of Mr. McClain, as matron of honor, was becomingly gowned in orchid georgette and carried a beautiful bouquet of pale pink roses. Miss Dorothy Musser, who attended as bridesmaid, wore a gown of yellow georgette over cloth of gold, an arm bouquet of Ophelia roses completing her costume. Miss Alice Coast, a sister of the bride, wore pale green georgette, her flowers being pink roses which contrasted prettily with her gown. Winsome little Miss Mary Ellen Coast, a cousin of the bride, acted as ring bearer, wearing pale pink, and immediately preceded the bride, who entered on the arm of her father, being met at the altar by the bridegroom and his best man, Mr. Lewis Taylor, of Minneapolis.
The bride's gown was a beautiful creation of heavily beaded white georgette over white bridal satin, fashioned with a long train of satin hung from the shoulders. Her coronet veil was held in place with strands of pearls, and fell in graceful folds to the end of the train. She carred a lovely shower of Bride's roses and lillies of the valley, a beautiful platinum pin with diamond setting, a gift of the bridegroom, being her only ornament. The impressive marriage service was Dr. Dwight Witherspoon Wylie, of New York City, an uncle of the bride, and a former pastor of the First Presbyterian church at Iowa City.
At the conclusion of the nuptial service, a reception was held at the home of the bride's parents, at 530 North Clinton street, the guests including about sixty relatives and intimate friends. The rooms were attractively decorated with flowers, the dining room being especially efective in blue and pink, the colors of Mr. McClain's fraternity, Beta Theta Pi. A large crystal bowl of delphinia centered the table and was connected with smaller bouquets of delphinia and pink roses by tiny chains of crystal, four pink tapers giving and additional touch of color to the arrangement. A delicious buffet supper was served during the evening, which the young people spent dancing, Ogle's orchestra furnishing the music.
Out of town guests included Mr. Edward Murphy, of Vinton, Iowa; Mr. and Mrs. Barry Gilbert, of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Reed, of Des Moines; Dr. and Mrs. D. W. Wylie, of New York City; Mr. and Mrs. Albert Currier, of Cleveland, Ohio; and Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Taylor, of Minneapolis.
Both Mr. and Mrs. McClain are well known throughout the state, being prominent in collegiate and society circles in Iowa City and both being alumni of the State University of Iowa, the bride having been graduated in 1919, and the bridegroom in 1901 from the college of liberal arts, and in 1903 from the college of law. Mrs. McClain is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and after her graduation from the university studied art for a year under Professor A. C. Cummings of the university art department. During the past year, she has been laboratory assistant to Dr. C. P. Howard. Mr. McClain served for a time as city attorney and for a number of years practiced law in Des Moines, where he was popular with the social set. He is now the junior member of the law firm of Dutcher and McClain of Iowa City.
The young people left at midnight on a honeymoon trip through northern Michigan, several weeks of which will be spent at Mr. McClain's cottage near Mackinac. After September 1st, they will be at home to friends at 1005 East Burlington street.
Iowa City Press Citizen, July 26, 1923
Marjorie Coast McClain passed away at four o'clock this morning in the University hospital. Toxic poisoning was the direct cause of her death. Her husband, Donald McClain, her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. P. C. Coast, and her sister, Alice Coast, were with her at the time of her death.
Her only other relatives in Iowa City are her uncle, W. O. Coast and his family. Mrs. Wylie, wife of Rev. D. W. Wylie of New York CIty is her aunt. Oscar R. Coast of Santa Barbara, California, is a great uncle.
Marjorie Coast McClain was born Sept. 11th, 1895, in Iowa City. She was graduated from the State University of Iowa in 1919, where she later held a position in the English department. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and active in all university affairs. After a year's study in New York she was in Dr. Howard's department in the University hospital in charge of the basal metabolic rate determination.
She was married to Donald McClain, son of Judge and Mrs. Emlin McClain of Iowa City, July 23rd, 1923. The funearl arrangements have not been made.
Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 4, 1924
After an unyielding battle of over ten weeks, Marjorie Coast McClain passed away at 4 o'clock Monday morning with the same sweetness and courage she had always shown throughout her life, and with the same calmness and serenity that had always marked her girlhood and later years.
A girl of most marked personality, of depth of soul and love of the beautiful, with a charm that no one who knew her could ever forget, she had, too, a mind of unusual intellectual powers. Her quick appreciation mentally of any question or subject that arose, made her a most interesting listener and companion. Her reading had been wide and of all the better things, so that no point or allusion escaped or went beyond her. Her love of literature was intense and her taste in it of the best.
Her every instinct was high and fine and she seemed intuitively to reach out and make her own all of the very best in all that she touched.
Her life was always unselfish and unassuming. It was largely lived for others. This trait was apparent when, only eleven years of age, alone with little playmantes and unable to swim, without a moment's hesitation, she plunged into the Iowa river at its deepest point, out into the stream in water far above her depth and succeeded in resucing one of the children from drowning. Then without a word to anyone, she quietly slipped up the back way to her home, and her family never knew what she had done until they were told by others. When asked, "Why, Marjorie, were you not afraid?" she answered, "Why who else would have done it if I did not?" She had accepted the risk as being hers and the rescue as a thing, which, of course, had to be tried by her, whether she died or not. For this act, through the effort of the child's father, Judge Samuel Hayes, she was awarded a Carnegie medal for heroism.
In the home she was a constant source of inspriation and hope with her ever present smile and her eagerness to do more than her frail strength permitted. In her social life she gave from her keen mind with its wonderful sense of humor always more and more, to those about her. She was always dependable, sunny, mentally alert, sweet and unassuming, loyal to her friends and loyal to all her best self. No sweeter girl nor one of higher and finer ideals ever lived in Iowa City.
As a wife for one short year, she carried her rich personality and gifts into the making of a perfect home. She was buried this morning at 11 o'clock from the CoaSt home on North Clinton street, whence she went as a bride only a year ago, dressed in the same bride's gown she then wore.
Some deaths seem harder to bear, less understandable and more tragic than others. The passing of Marjorie Coast McClain is one of them.
Beautiful Services Are Impressive
The funeral was marked by the simple, but impressive and beautiful ritualistic services of the Presbyterian church. They were conducted by Rev. Herbert L. Searles, the University pastor o the Presbyterian church.
The pallbearers were old friends of the deeply-mourned decedent — Senator Charles M. Dutcher, Attorney Fred L. Stevens, Dr. Robert Gibson, and Messrs. John Sproatt, Harry D. Breene, and W. Hal Stewart.
Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 6, 1924
