NORTH PALM BEACH -- Marcia Mahon, who shared the stage with Tony Award winners and food with the needy, died on Wednesday (September 25) of Lou Gehrig's disease. She was 71.

Mrs. Mahon was best known for her performances in Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre -- the oldest active theater in America. She starred with a litany of leading men, including Tony Award-winner George Hearn in Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

But her favorite role of all was Anna in The King and I, said Bruce Mahon, her widower. It's the story of an adventurous English woman hired as a governess and tutor to the many children of King Mongkut in Bangkok.

The role mirrored her tutelage of many people she encountered, Mahon said. In the theater, she would help younger actors deal with stress. As a docent at art museums -- including at the Norton Museum of Art after she moved to Florida in 1997 -- she would prod children to interpret the works, asking, "What are you seeing? Why do you like it? What was the artist trying to do?" Mahon said.

Even as her health worsened, she seemed to inspire her visitors.

"The people who came and saw her, she made them feel better and that's how she was," he said. "Anybody who met her never forgot her."

Locally, Mrs. Mahon performed at Florida Stage and the Caldwell Theatre, including in a 1999 Caldwell performance of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden.

She volunteered and contributed to numerous charities. She delivered food to the needy for Meals on Wheels as recently as June, even though she could no longer get around easily.

"She was in a wheelchair while she was delivering it," Mahon said. "She felt the need to do something for people."