Louise Heinmiller (Woodruff) Marshall

Louise Woodruff Marshall

Louise Heinmiller Marshall (née Woodruff), age 97, a long-time resident of Beverwyck, a senior living community in Slingerlands, NY, passed away on April 25th at Pines Edge nursing facility at North Hill in Needham, MA due to complications from Covid-19.

Born in Newark, NJ in 1923, her parents, Dora and Alfred Woodruff, raised Louise, and her older brother William, in Teaneck. Dora schooled her children in diction, elocution, and mellifluous speaking—lessons which were to influence Louise’s love of, and future success in the performing arts. Beautiful and articulate, Louise became well known in the Capital District as a theatre actress, radio and television performer.

Louise graduated in 1944 from New Jersey State Teachers College and later moved to Schenectady where she taught elementary school children. She was active in productions at the Schenectady Civic Playhouse and Malden Bridge Playhouse, and began working in radio and television. She emceed the Capehart Quiz-Q, one of the earliest TV game shows, and was a regular performer in FBI in Action, a radio drama on WGY Radio. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Louise appeared in commercials, many of them live, on WRGB, the first TV station in the nation.  

In 1948 she married Paul R. Heinmiller, a GE engineer and technical writer who later became editor of the General Electric Review. Paul and Louise built a modernist house in the new West Hill community of Rotterdam, NY in 1952 where they brought up their daughter and son. Sadly, the family lost Paul to cancer in 1969. By that time Louise had become the weather reporter on WRGB-TV. The support of her wonderful friends and neighbors in West Hill enabled her to continue reporting the weather with a smile each evening.

Unique in her time, Louise continued her career as a performer while also teaching speech and acting seminars and raising a family. In 1965 she joined the weekend news team at WRGB, Channel 6, and soon became their very popular on-air weeknight weather reporter. She often joked that if the managers had told her just how popular she was in the ratings, “I would have asked for a raise!”

One of the first women in the country to become a weather reporter, she made a serious study of meteorology in the days before that was a requirement for the job. To her, reporting weather was another kind of teaching. Louise appeared as a mystery guest on the television program What’s My Line? (circa 1968) as the “Weather Girl.” When asked by the host if she thought it was unusual for a girl to do the weather, Louise replied, “There is no reason we can’t be bright and do the job, too.” This memory always made her smile as so many women followed her in the profession.  

She was Capitol district’s “Louise with the weather” at WRGB until 1972 when she married GE executive W. John Marshall and moved with him to Bilbao, Spain. While in Spain Louise became fluent in Spanish and then studied Basque, considered to be the most difficult language in the world. Louise loved the Basque people and their culture. Jack and Louise resided in Spain and then Puerto Rico, returning to the US after ten years, retiring to their home in West Hill. Louise returned to her local television and radio work in commercials and made personal appearances.  

Louise and Jack continued exploring the world together, taking trips to Alaska, Costa Rica, through the Panama Canal, and to Ireland; visiting dear friends made in Spain and Puerto Rico, and their extended families in Boston, Arizona, and Virginia. Widowed a second time at 75, she continued to have many travel adventures with family or friends, and even on her own, including climbing pyramids in Mexico.

Forever curious, in her spare time Louise improved her fluency in Spanish, studied new languages, and passionately engaged in family genealogy research. She directed her philanthropic energy primarily toward causes related to health, education, and the arts. Louise and her friend, Bob Patton, were frequent patrons of the theatre, the opera, and the symphony. She was also an extraordinary gardener with a legendary green thumb. Her mission of growing the perfect tomato is a carried on by her son.  

Preceded in death by Jack (1998), Louise, a beloved mom and grand-mom, is survived by her daughter, Paulyn Heinmiller (Greg Faust), son, Glenn Heinmiller (Cathy), stepson David Marshall (Alice), her niece Holly B. Woodruff; her 4 grand children, Jennifer Marshall (Rawson Stovall), Sandy Marshall (Muna), Eric Faust, Elaina Faust; 3 great-grand children, Willet Stovall, Salma Marshall, Yusuf Marshall, and dear friend Susan Marshall.

Louise’s family will gather to celebrate her life at a future date and suggests donations in her honor to the Albany Symphony. http://www.albanysymphony.com/giving

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