As we reflect on all things local in this issue, we honor the life of local wonder woman, Marvel Gentry Harmon, a colleague as the award-winning publisher of Madeira and Indian Hill Neighbor magazines.
A 1971 Walnut Hill High School graduate, Marvel earned a degree from Chicago’s Northwestern University in 1975. During her time at NU, she made history as the first Black pompom girl and the only person of color on the homecoming court.
Marvel’s greatest accomplishment is her beautiful daughter, Epiphany Elease Gentry Davis. Upon her 2017 marriage to Arthur W. Harmon, Jr., she gained two more daughters, Christina Reeves and Justin Harmon, and two grandsons, David and Christian Reeves. The romance of Marvel and Art led to many shared adventures.
Marvel enjoyed travel, music, golf, swimming—but most of all, she loved the arts and the stage. As the Producing Artistic Director of Ballet Tech Cincinnati, later arts innovation movement (aim: cincinnati), she fostered countless performance opportunities for dancers of all ages. She brought the best of the best in the dance world to Cincinnati.
Marvel was an outstanding performer in her own right—from her childhood days of dancing through adulthood. More recently, she discovered musical theater and found a community with the Loveland Stage Company, taking weekly dance classes and performing there several times a year.
Marvel’s life was her greatest performance, filled with love, faith and joy. Though the curtain has fallen, her light endures, reminding us that it is not the length of life, but the beauty of how it is lived, that truly matters. She was, in every sense, a wonderful woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend, remembered forever as a true marvel.
Honor the life of Marvel Gentry Harmon with a legacy gift to GentryScholarship.org.