Marie E. Young, 86, food manager at Penn and Central High

MARIE FLETCHER didn't know much about the world.

Hers was a sheltered existence, the youngest in the family, protected and spoiled by her older brothers, married at 19, and soon a mother of six and content to be a housewife.

Then, it all fell apart. Her marriage broke up and she was suddenly faced with providing for six children as a single mother. What to do?

She soon found out what to do, and the courage and determination that would mark the rest of her life came to the fore. She not only survived, but thrived.

Marie E. Young, as she became after marrying John Cleveland Young in 1946, a food service manager at the University of Pennsylvania and Central High School and loving family matriarch, died Tuesday after a short illness. She was 86 and lived in West Mount Airy.

She was born in Philadelphia to Marie and John Fletcher. She attended Roosevelt Junior High School and Germantown High, and went on to Peirce Junior College.

Her idyllic childhood home life in West Mount Airy more or less revolved around her. Her late brothers, Matthew, a World War II vet, and Charles, an amateur photographer, doted on their cute younger sister. Charles took scores of photos of her.

Another returning vet was John Cleveland Young Jr., of Hartsville, S.C., home from the Navy. After their marriage, Marie had a baby every year for the next six years.

After about 15 years, the marriage broke up and her husband was gone from her life. She and her mother raised the children, and Marie was faced with the necessity of finding work.

After a number of jobs, including work as a domestic and running a school cafeteria in Flourtown, she was employed by the Quartermaster Depot in South Philadelphia as a seamstress. Her last two jobs were in food management for Penn and the Philadelphia School District at Central High School, from which she retired.

Theresa Young, her daughter, a 32-year veteran of the Police Department, recalled that at one time her beat included Central High, and she would stop in every morning to have breakfast with her mother.

"She was not used to achieving things," Theresa said. "But she felt she had made it when she was able to buy a car, a Ford Galaxy. After leading such a sheltered life, she became a no-nonsense manager, strong-willed and resolute."

The next step was to buy a house. Real-estate agents were reluctant to sell houses to single women, but they didn't reckon on the kind of drive and determination Marie had developed.

She got her house, in another section of West Mount Airy.

"She was very proud of her family name," Theresa said. "She would tell us, 'You're Youngs, be proud of it.'

"She was a beautiful person. She had a good, sardonic sense of humor, and a hearty laugh. She was very detail-oriented from her work, big on numbers and accounting. We used to do the crossword puzzles and cryptograms in the newspapers.

"She liked to keep up with current events and read a newspaper every day. I have an image of her sitting by the window, reading a newspaper, while she kept track of the children."

Marie lost a daughter, Chellie, in infancy and as a result was a big supporter of St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis.

Besides Theresa, she is survived by another daughter, Jayne Young; two sons, John and Richard Young; seven grandchildren; more than a dozen great-grandchildren; and her best friend, Blanche Singleton. She was predeceased by another daughter, Marjorie.

At her request, there will be no funeral. Donations in her memory may be made to the St. Jude Children's Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.