Marne Royce Hadden – San Diego Union-Tribune

Marne Royce Hadden

OBITUARY

Marne Royce Hadden died in hospice on December 8, 2025 after a brave battle with cancer. She was predeceased by her parents and brother, Alex, and is survived by four siblings.

She was born on November 4, 1951 at Huntington Memorial in Pasadena, California, the fourth child of Wesley and Dorothy Hadden. Until she was seven, Marne lived with her family at the Huntington Hotel in Pasadena where her maternal grandfather, Stephen W. Royce, was the owner and managing director, and her father, the assistant sales manager. In the summer of 1958, the Hadden family moved to Rancho Santa Fe to run the Royce family’s recently acquired Inn at Rancho Santa Fe.

The Ranch in the early ’60s – a tranquil village with a market, library, hardware store, and gift shops – was magical for most children, but even more so for Marne who had the run of the Inn’s beautiful grounds, attended the local school, kept chickens and baby quail as pets, and learned to ride. She soon became an accomplished equestrienne competing in horse shows around the state with her trusty steed, Rocky Neil, and collecting scores of blue ribbons across multiple events from western bareback to stock horse equitation. At The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, Marne was a popular student athlete and captain of the Royal Purples in her senior year. She graduated with the class of 1969 and went on to Pine Manor Junior College in Brookline, Massachusetts, where she made the honor list in the winter term of her freshman year.

Tragically, Marne suffered a scuba diving accident in the late summer of 1970 that left her disabled for the rest of her life. Diminished but ever resilient and surrounded, supported, and cared for by family and friends, Marne persevered in her inimitable style. She found childlike joy in everything she did from baking cookies, coloring, playing dominoes to weekly visits to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park with Suzanne Keil, her dear friend and constant companion. Marne was also lovingly cared for by her caregiver, Linda Tate the last 10 years of her life.

For years, Marne proudly led her pygmy goats, Friday and Harbor, in the 4th of July parade and rode her large tricycle to the Helen Woodward Animal Center where she volunteered and participated in the handicapped riding program, often stopping by the Chino Farm on her way home for the watermelons she loved and the corn they cooked for her.

In recent years, Marne loved visits to the beach and programs at the Rancho Santa Fe Senior Center, across the street from the lovely home she was raised and lived in for nearly 70 years.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Hellen Woodward Animal Center. A private memorial service will be held at a later time.