Marion Kramer Finbury died in her sleep after a brief illness on Saturday morning, Nov. 21, at her home at the Edgewood Retirement Community in North Andover. She was 88.

Marion was born in New York city on August 11, 1927. She was the daughter of Joseph and Lena Kramer. Her siblings were the late Eugene Kramer and Kris Warren of Princeton, N.J.

Marion graduated from Hunter High School in Manhattan and from Vassar College as an English major in 1948. She married Haverhill attorney Herbert Finbury and they lived, worked and raised their family at their homes in Haverhill and West Tisbury.

Marion was a legendary college guidance counselor who began her career in 1970 at Abbot Academy and retired as head of the college guidance department at Phillips Academy in 1992. After retirement she worked part time at Harvard University as an admissions officer and as a volunteer at Boston City Year. Marion was awarded the McKeen Award from the Brace Center for Gender Studies at Phillips Academy in 2000. She was well-known for her fierce intelligence, grace, gentle wit, beauty, and progressive politics.

Marion was a life-long music lover and was a reliable source for the lyrics and melodies of the American Jazz Songbook. She fondly recalled waiting in line in the rain to hear Frank Sinatra in 1943 in New York city and going to hear Ella Fitzgerald in the Village and Dave McKenna at the Copley Plaza in Boston. She was an avid reader and a lifelong learner. She loved to discuss politics and was actively engaged in current events. In her final years she assisted MSNBC with their TV ratings as best as she could. Always fashion forward, having begun her working career at Women’s Wear Daily in New York city, Marion was recognized by her signature over-sized glasses and red beret.

Marion was many things to many people: the love of her husband’s life and his golf swing doctor, a counselor to thousands of students, a role model and friend, a great cook and hunter-gatherer for her family, and a loving and steadfast mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

She is survived by her children: Elaine, John, and Dan Finbury, and her grandchildren Margo and her husband Josh, Max, Mathew, Anna and Sam, and two great-grandchildren, Ella and Valea. She will be missed by her daughters in law Patty Brayden and Patricia Reeser, her son in law Kenneth Lindauer, and her sister in law Ruth Finley.

Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend a memorial service at Edgewood Retirement Community, 575 Osgood Street, North Andover at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 24. Private interment will be in Phillips Chapel Cemetery in Andover. Arrangements are by the H.L. Farmer & Sons Funeral Homes. Condolences to her family may be made at farmerfuneralhomes.com.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Daniel Edelstein Scholarship Fund, Temple Emanuel, 7 Haggetts Pond Road, Andover, MA 01810.