Darlington Middle School has been grieving over the loss of eighth-grader Mary Alice Babcock, who died Tuesday, Jan. 11, after collapsing during a Rome Recreational Department basketball game.
“Mary Alice was a wonderful child,” Middle School Assistant Principal Sally MacLeod said. “The kids will tell you she always had a smile. She was a friend to everybody, a good student, responsible and respectable – just a wonderful child and a wonderful member of the community.”
“Mary Alice was very thoughtful and took care of other students in the Middle School,” said Diane Ogletree, Middle School secretary. “She was extremely generous to others and always thought about everybody else. She was very perceptive, sensitive to other kids – very kind and tender. Everyone would always hug Mary Alice.”
Band director Bill King added, “Mary Alice was extremely dependable, a very open and friendly person. She was genuinely concerned about other people.”
Active in the school band, where she played French Horn, and a piano student, Mary Alice also loved drama, participating in Rome Little Theater and Children’s Theater Creative Playhouse productions. She enjoyed basketball, and was active in her youth group at Rome’s First Presbyterian Church.
Mary Alice’s family is connected to Darlington in a myriad of ways. Her mother, Lucy Babcock, is a second grade teacher at the Lower School. Her brothers, Allen, twelfth grade, and Andrew, tenth grade, are students at the Upper School. Bob Babcock, Mary Alice’s father, is president of the Darlington Fine Arts Booster Club. Several of Mary Alice’s cousins also go to Darlington.
Funeral services were held Saturday, Jan. 15, at Darlington Chapel, followed by interment at Myrtle Hill Cemetery.
Counselors from Darlington and area schools, churches, and clinics were on hand in the aftermath of Mary Alice’s death to work with students, and counseling will continue to be available at Darlington for those who need it. For further help, contact Jill Pate at 236-0451 or Diane Ogletree at 236-0468.
“Students and faculty here have suffered a terribly tragic loss – the death of a child is unfathomably difficult to comprehend,” President David Hicks said. “Our spirits are boosted by the knowledge that Mary Alice was a precious girl with a strong faith. She lived in the hope of the resurrection. We have been equally comforted by the compassionate support of the Rome community.”
