Marcy Ballard Button-Haberkorn

Marcy Button-Haberkorn died peacefully on October 30, 2023, after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease, cerebrovascular disease, normal pressure hydrocephalus, and significant atrophy to her frontal lobes. She was 78.

Marcy was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 18, 1945, to Bland and Nancy (Nimmons) Button. She lived in the city with her family and grandparents, Justine (Wheeler) and architect George C. Nimmons. After their deaths, the family moved to Winnetka, Illinois where she loved horses, her friends, her animals, and was later elected vice president of her senior class at New Trier High School.

She attended Colby-Sawyer College from 1963 to1964, Boston University in 1965 and 1966, and received her degree in economics from Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts in 1979. She married Thomas Newton Oliphant in 1966, and they had three children. In 1978, she remarried Arno "Buck" Haberkorn III and they shared 18 years together.

During those years, she raised her children, supported her family and worked for causes she cared about: Rosie's Place to help women in need of emergency shelter and care, the Animal Rescue League of Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, and her friend, "Sidewalk Sam" and his work and mission to bring art out of the institutions and onto the streets. She loved chocolate lace, art history, PBS, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, The Everly Brothers, Cher, meeting and voting for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Notre Dame football, Tom Brady and The Patriots, and the sound of Pauly Shore's voice always made her laugh.

She is survived by her three children Thomas N. Button, Wendy T. Button, and Jeremy B. Button and his wife Jennifer, and two grandchildren, Reilly and Margot Button. She is also survived by her brother Kenneth Button and his wife Linda, her older sister Justine Bartell and her husband Jim, and her twin sister Louise Burgin and her husband Bill. She is also survived by nieces and nephews Nancy Bartell, Julie Bartell, Kara Button, Daniel Button, John Cunningham, Tommy Vietor, Taylor Vietor, their families, and lots of Button cousins.

Marcy loved science, and her family donated her brain for research to The Brain Donation Hub at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. In honor of Marcy's memory and the millions who suffer from these neurodegenerative diseases, please consider a brain donation as well.

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