Marion Weiscarger Roughsedge - Marion Sadge

More than a million people have seen Tom Sadge perform as a Neil Diamond impersonator. Several have become acquainted with him through the years. Of that group, very few have seen me in person, and none know me very well.

If you're on this page, you must be curious. Have fun, but..

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I may be updating this on a regular basis.

Priorities
Anyone who knows me personally knows I put my nuclear family first in my life. They also know I take promises and vows very seriously. I am a very private person who has always avoided the spotlight and photos. I cannot understand why anyone would not.

I am a non-confrontational person so, although I nearly always know what is going on, I rarely comment on the behavior of other adults.

Why bother?

But I have a reputation for speaking up on behalf of children, animals, the weak and the innocent against corrupt mayors, police chiefs, bishops, judges and bullies in general.

Education and More
Catholic education was inexpensive back in the days of we Baby Boomers. Most of the teachers were nuns or priests who taught for free. There were nearly a thousand students from grades one through twelve at our parochial school. Everyone I knew was either the grand or greatgrandchild of an immigrant who had come (legally) through Castle Garden (bet you never heard of that one) or, later, Ellis Island.

As an interesting aside, peanut allergies were unheard of in those days. Peanut butter sandwiches were a regular item on our lunch menu.

I spent twelve years in that massive three story red brick building and graduated with many of the same classmates with whom I'd started first grade. Several of us went to college together.

From grades four through seven I was the lone flautist in the school marching band, which meant seven-thirty am practice just about every day - before 8am Mass. The uniforms were atrocious - white bell hop hats with a blue feather.
I was no Sir James Galway, but the job got done.

Cheerleading took up five years of my life and thousands of hours spent practicing splits, backbends and high kicks in my room in addition to jumps and cartwheels in our tiny back yard. The hard work paid off because twice I was voted captain by cheerleaders from other schools based on technique and athletic ability. But none of my closest friends ever succeeded at the yearly tryouts. I missed having pals with me at endless practices, games, on bus rides and at cheerleading camp. I survived.

My senior year I opted out of "The Squad" and took an after-school job as the evening shift telephone operator at the town hospital. The massive red brick building on a hill was within walking distance from our home. The job was great fun but, more than that, it impacted my life. Consequential people, whom I have never forgotten, came through the doors of that building overlooking the Susquehanna River.
Running was a passion and I engaged in it from age fourteen until my late twenties. Before I met Tom, it was a rare day when I wasn't rounding the indoor track at the local YMCA or, in the warmer weather, jogging through the streets of Pittston or Allentown. Running made me feel deer-like and free. Sometimes I ran three miles and sometimes twenty, but I don't have a competitive bone in my body so no marathons for me.

Drawing was another passion which I practiced almost daily. Portraits of important people in my life were my forte. I gave most of my art away to the friends who inspired the work.

College Years
I am forever grateful to King's College in Wilkes-Barre, PA for the generous academic scholarship granted to me. I didn't like high school much, didn't graduate near the top of my class, but I had high SAT scores.

At King's, I was a typical "Townie" who commuted daily to the college campus. As such, I worked part-time at a few jobs to pay for clothes, gas / bus fare and coffee in the Susquehanna Room. I finished my Bachelor's degree requirements in two and one half years by taking extra credits and going to school full-time in the day plus at night and in the summer. I graduated, cum laude, two months after my twentieth birthday.

"Dormies" were, obviously, students who lived in the dorms and most had well-off parents. Few worked. They were prone to arriving late for class. This was especially true of the males who, typically, rolled out of bed at the last minute. Many waltzed into the classroom late and with disheveled hair and the upiquitious wrinkled plaid flannel shirts.

Townie girls were wary of dating Dormies because we knew these guys often had a girlfriend back home or away at another private college. Many of these guys were fun, friendly and had the best keg parties. Some were unforgettable - like sweet Curtis, who would wall through the halls on Valentine's Day and pass out roses to any girl he saw, whether he knew them or not.

Except for the flannel shirts, I bet things have not changed much.

Post-graduate courses I've taken are oil painting and creative writing. I was prepping for my writing career.

After college graduation, I worked for a year at McCrory's - so little money but so much fun. I made wonderful friends. Shortly after my 21st birthday, I attained my first professional job at Wilkes-Barre's Mercy Hospital where I helped open their new Psychiatric Unit. Most of us were young and carefree. A few of us went out almost nightly to local night spots. The legendary Vispi's Camelot was a favorite place to go. So many people from those halcyon days have passed on, but I will never forget them - especially my beloved friend, side-kick and co-worker Nancy.

In the winder of 1977 / 1978, it was time to move on for many reasons. I applied for, and got, the job as a lowly trainee in Allentown, PA at Hess's, where I lived for four years in a cozy attic apartment.

The Butterfly Effect has taught me to not regret that decision.

Beginnings
Tom and I met in January of 1983 while I was working in store management for Hess's Department Store in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The year before, I'd requested, a transfer back to my home area from the Allentown, PA corporate headquarters.

I had loved being a buyer of Junior Dresses for Hess's, and traveling to the Garment District in Manhattan weekly. And yet, for several reasons, all personal, it was time to leave Allentown. From 1978 until 1982, I had worked very hard at that almost magical, world famous Hamilton Mall Hess's and had risen from an entry level sales position to that of one of only 99 buyers in a chain with nearly 7000 employees and more than 44 stores (at that time).

The job of packing up my sparsely furnished 3rd floor walk-up attic apartment overlooking beautiful, tree filled West Park was relatively easy. On my 27th birthday, a rainy day in March of 1982, I walked out of that 3 room railroad flat for the last time, carrying with me a mixture of relief and sorrow. Besides an old plaid couch, I left behind some very happy memories and some very traumatic ones, as well. During my 4 years there, life was full. I'd made some of the truest friends of my life, but met a few likely psychopaths, as well.

When I met Tom in January 1983, I'd been home for ten months. Tom had recently moved back to his hometown of Avoca PA after a stint in the U.S. Navy. He'd put in time as lead singer in a band in Massachusetts and, later, at bar/ restaurant management jobs in Florida and Mississippi.

Our meeting came late one Friday night. An old school friend insisted I go and see Tom, who had become a local celebrity, perform as a "Singing DJ" at a nightclub a few towns away from my parents' home, an old ten room Victorian built by my greatgrandparents in the 1890s.
Tom asked my friend for my number at the end of that Friday night. She gave it to him, and Tom called my home the next day. We went on our first date, to see the movie Tootsie, that Sunday night.

Tom was, I thought at the time, a breath of fresh air from the buttoned-up, college-educated professional types with whom I'd had long relationships previously. He was very charming. We were inseparable in those early days.

Fifteen months after meeting, we were married in that Catholic church that my Irish great-grandparents had helped build in the late 1800s. St. John's looks a great deal like Saint Patrick's in Manhattan, where my parents met.
By the next year we were parents of our son, and ten years later, our daughter.

The Businesses Grow
Tom's job entailed working late into the wee hours as a DJ in local clubs. From the time we met, I worked full-time at my profession, and, after 9pm, as a pro bono cocktail waitress at whatever club Tom happened to be working. My salary paid our bills and living expenses and everything Tom made went back into our entertainment business. The popularity of "Tom Sadge" steadily grew. He and I were always busy.

After marriage and the birth of our son, which necessitated me staying home, it became apparent there was a downside to his profession: clubs closed at 2am. Tom rarely made it home before 4am, then slept most of the day. Career aspirations for me had to be set aside: there were no babysitters in either family willing and/or able to help out. Both of my parents were gone. Tom's parents lived close by, were healthy, retired and financially very secure. However, Tom's parents expressed little interest in babysitting or visiting unless it was for supper.

I learned to be independent and to make money via several side-hustle jobs which did not require a babysitter. One such gig was as a newspaper carrier - a grueling job I kept for seven years. The job entailed rising 7 days a week, 365 days a year - no exceptions - at 4am. Many days I had not even gone to bed when it was time to get up and haul and roll those papers - even in a blizzard. It was an exhausting, but profitable job (no taxes owed as it was in my minor son's name) whereby I could take the children in the car when necessary. I stuck it out until rising gas prices, a manager who was keeping our mailed in tips, and other factors, made it unprofitable.

I then worked as an answering service operator, a job I began a month after the birth of our second child, a daughter, whom I had at age 39. A few years later, after teaching myself HTML in order to create a website for TomSadge.com, I reinvented myself as a webmaster for top board certified plastic surgeons. I also managed Tom Sadge and handled everything on the business side.

Teaching myself "code" came in handy - I created tomsadge.com and other commercial websites, which I operate to this day. On a few, I own USPTO trademarks, which I applied for and obtained on my own. Writing nightly on a blog temporarily satisfied my need to write and create art, as I made my own graphics to accompany the stories.

To outsiders, I was a stay-at-home mother who didn't appear to work or make any money because I didn't leave the house for a traditional job. In reality, my day never ended and I made at least fifty percent of our net income for many years.

As "Marion Sadge"
Our blessings have been many: two loving children and, thank God, healthy grandchildren and stepgrandchildren. Our youngest grandchild, a girl, was born in March of 2025. We baby sit her three days a week.
I have a daughter-in-law who is a wonderful mother and caring wife to my son.

I have been a night owl all my adult life, and an insomniac at times who doesn't require the usual eight hours. This has been in my favor, as there is always so much to do. For the past fourteen years, I have been privileged to have had had our two older grandchildren at our home during the day, or after school, while my son and his wife work at their professions.

Tom Sadge Is A Business, Not a Person
Tom an impersonator who impersonates Neil Diamond and others. Tom Sadge, like Alice Cooper, does not exist except on the stage. And so, although I use it in this biography, Tom Sadge is a business name only.

Show business requires a lot of time and work, and it is not the glamorous business that many outside of show business think it to be.
For example, a couple of naive fans once asked Tom: "how was your limousine ride was from the airport to the hotel?" Tom and I, and our children, had a very good laugh over that one.

There are many sacrifices to be made on the road to a career in entertainment. Entertaining is what Tom loves to do, for the most part, his dream came true.

Who Is Behind "Tom Sadge" ? It's a FAMILY Business
Talent alone won't make you a living. It's called show business for a reason. Tom and I have always been a team, and our children contributed heavily to the success, as well.

I've used my college education and years as a business professional and manager to harness Tom's enormous talent and take it in a profitable direction. In addition to coming up with the idea of Tom's transition from local "Singing DJ" to internationally acclaimed Neil Diamond impersonator, Tom Sadge as Neil Diamomd, I designed all of, and sewed some of, the costumes, choreographed the on-stage moves, produced the debut promotional CD, built (and still maintain) the TomSadge.com website, made the initial contacts, communicated with agents & clients, shielded him from overzealous fans, created and sent out the contracts, filed the receipts, do the bookkeeping and make the yearly trip to the CPA, and did much of the work that takes place off stage.

Over the years, Tom has gained tremendous business savvy. In his last few years as a celebrity impersonator, he put a respectable amount of time into the business end of our work. We are grateful to our two wonderful (now adult) children for their contributions to and sacrifices for the family business. When our children were young, much of our money was reinvested back into Tom Sadge. Their father was often away from home or on a schedule which did not dovetail with school, sports and other extra-curricular activities. Our son and daughter are now grown and very successful in their own right.

Self-Employment - Risky!
Being self-employed is a high-wire, risky business. This is especially true in the entertainment field. Your income is never guaranteed. Some months are "feast" and some are "famine". The overhead is daunting. (Other self-employed people reading this will agree).
Yet there are benefits: a couple will either grow closer or farther away, Tom and I have spent over four decades weathering the bumps that come along the way. Except for professional travel, which I occasionally engaged in with Tom, we worked side by side daily from our home office - and still do in retirement. Often our day ends at 4am. But, on the up side, there are whole days we can spend with our children and grandchildren. We can stop work in the middle of the day to go for a walk or drive together. - which we frequently do. This type of freedom helps to balance out the down side.

Show Business: Fans Versus Groupies
The nature of the entertainment business means you meet a lot of people from all walks of life. Most are interesting, appreciative, considerate, respectful and even encouraging. But, as any public figure's wife (or husband) can attest, you also meet your fair share of obsessed groupies and fans who can, without proper boundaries set by the celebrity himself / herself, become quite intrusive - even invasive and dangerous. We've had more than a few of these. Fans will clap and go home. Groupies will try to insert themselves into your private life or business in any way they can.

I write on a regular basis. I love to draw, and always have. One of my dreams has always been to write and illustrate a book. Time and life has a way of steering you in other directions. The book may never happen, but a blog already has - it has been online since 1999. That said, my biggest dream has already been achieved: to be a good wife and mother and grandmother. I am grateful for each "normal" day and what it brings. And for every night when nothing "bad" has fallen on those I love - or like. That is especially true as time marches on.

Retirement: COVID19 has taken it's toll on many people and businesses. "Tom Sadge" has been officially retired since 2022.
Tom and I are now busy enjoying endeavors and hobbies for which we previously had little or no time.
Life is good, and, God willing, will continue to be.