MARIE JOANNE PARSONS (nee: McMAHON)

On May 27, 2020, Heaven gained another angel as Marie McMahon Parsons passed away just a few days shy of her 93rd Birthday. Marie was born on May 30, 1927, and grew up during the Great Depression in Cleveland, Ohio. She was the fourth of six children born to Lyda Isabell McGarrell and Martin Vincent McMahon, Sr. She attended Brush High School but graduated from Shaw High School in 1945. For a short while she attended Bowling Green University and is listed in their 1947 year book. She married Richard James Parsons, Sr. on July 2, 1949. Together they had five children. Richard passed away on December 1, 1996 and Marie was left as a widow at the young age of 69. Marie had several suitors after her husband’s passing most notable Emerson Gorslene whom she spent eight years with before moving to Maplewood in 2019. Her family will be eternally grateful for the kind companionship Emerson showed their mother. Marie continued to winter in the North Ft. Meyers, Florida area until she was 87 years old. Other than her winters in Florida, she spent her entire life in the Northeast Ohio area.

Education was very important to Marie and she set a very good example for her five children. When her youngest went off to Kindergarten, Marie started her second career. She was a graduate of the Realtors Institute in Ohio and sold Real Estate for many years. She then went back to school again and received a Certificate in Finance and she worked at the headquarters for JoAnn Fabrics. After that she added to her training again and became a tax preparer for H&R Block. Marie made sure that a college education was available to all her five children and they all graduated from college with degrees in Engineering, Laboratory Science, and Nursing. Although Marie greatly enjoyed her role as a traditional homemaker, she saw a clear path for her daughters as wage earners with one of her favorite sayings, ‘why should women give up their superiority for equality’. She was a great example of a woman who had her cake (or pecan pie) and ate it too.

She loved her parents, brothers and sister often speaking of them and the fun they had as children. The McMahon family loved to sing and at the many family reunions they would spend evenings singing songs together. Although Marie was plagued by moderate memory loss due to Alzheimer’s, she remembered the lyrics perfectly to many, many songs and often led the sing-alongs at Maplewood in Chardon where she spent her last year.

Marie was a wonderful and supportive mother, wife, in-law, sister and friend. She was predeceased in life by her parents and her sister Winifred McMahon Jensen and her brother Martin V. McMahon, Sr. She is survived by her bothers Andrew, Robert, and Francis, her children Richard, Gregory, Mary Patricia (Christensen), Barbara (Aichinger) and Kathleen (Bender). Marie was blessed with the 11 Grandchildren and 12 Great Grandchildren.

Marie will be interred at All Souls Cemetery in Chardon, Ohio with her husband Richard. A short graveside service will be held on Saturday, May 30th at 11 AM. In lieu of flowers the family is asking for tribute donations to the Hospice of the Western Reserve. Arrangements handled by Burr Funeral Home and Cremation Service, Chardon, OH.