Marjorie was the daughter of Mary Ann Anderson, a hired worker for the Cather family in Virginia. Though her birth date is debated, Margie moved to Nebraska with the Cathers and died in 1924. She is buried in the Cather family plot. History labels Margie as mentally under-developed, someone who was afraid of adults, unusually kind to children, childlike, and illiterate. She married a man named O'Leary in Nebraska but was severely mistreated, which likely heightened her reclusive nature. Mr. Cather even built a high-board fence to secure Margie's privacy while doing work outside.
“Another friend of Willa’s early days was the hired girl, Margie, who appears as “Mahailey” in One of Ours, as “Mandy” in “Old Mrs. Harris” …. Margie’s mother had worked for Mrs. Cather in Virginia, and when the poor woman, mother of fifteen, heard that the Cathers were moving to Nebraska, she begged them to take the girl along” (Bennett 57)
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