Marcia Lortscher, thought to be the longest-surviving diabetic kidney transplant recipient in the world, died at her Denver home June 20. She was 65.
She had planned to have a brunch today for the people who had sent her cards during her last hospitalization.
When the party list grew to 325, her husband decided to move it from their backyard to the Denver Country Club. “Breakfast was Marcia’s favorite meal,” he said.
Lortscher, who was diagnosed with diabetes at age 10, had the kidney transplant in 1972, done by Dr. Tom Starzl, then of Denver, who told the Lortschers 10 years ago that Marcia Lortscher had lived longer than any diabetic who had gotten a kidney. Doctors were fearful about kidney transplants for diabetics because of the chance of the new kidney getting the same disease the old kidney had, said Randall Lortscher.
Despite that and numerous other health problems, including going blind 25 years ago, Marcia Lortscher made a huge impact on people with whom she had contact and kept up her own spirits, said her brother, David Murphy of Denver.
“She was indefatigable,” said Murphy. “She always lived with optimism.”
Of her health problems, including colon and breast cancer, and heart surgery last spring, the blindness was the “most frustrating,” said her husband. “She managed to keep going, though she would have a meltdown once in a while.”
Marcia Lortscher had more than 1,000 names in her address book, said Marty Segelke of Englewood, a friend ever since “our trikes collided on Monaco when we were kids.
“She was always arranging things and people, whether it was in her neighborhood” or connecting people to one of her causes, said Segelke. “People felt comfortable around her and she never turned down anyone who needed help.”
Help might include collecting baby clothes for families or making breads for senior citizens, Segelke said.
Lortscher loved to entertain “whether it was for four people or 400,” said Segelke. On her husband’s 40th birthday, Lortscher popped out of a cake in top hat and tails and did a tap dance routine, Segelke said at the funeral last week.
The Lortschers helped establish the Marcia Murphy Lortscher Kidney Center at Snow Mountain YMCA near Granby so that dialysis patients on vacation could still have their treatments.
She and other members of her sorority, Delta Gamma, helped establish the Anchor Center for Blind Children 25 years ago to help them learn how to be mainstreamed, said Lortscher’s husband. It started with a budget of $25,000 and now has a budget of $2.5 million, Lortscher estimated.
Marcia Gail Murphy was born in Denver on Oct. 1, 1942, and graduated from East High School.
She earned a bachelor of fine arts degree at the University of Colorado and did interior design here and in New York City.
She met Randall Lortscher on a blind date and they married Dec. 28, 1970.
In addition to her husband and brother, Lortscher is survived by another brother, Steven Murphy of Denver, and her sister, Karen Murphy of Eugene, Ore.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
