Marianne Walsh, 84, passed away on February 28, 2024 at the Jane and Bill Warner Hospice Center for Caring in Fernandina Beach, Florida. She is survived by her husband David, and daughters Mary Gorman and Kara Walsh, all of Fernandina Beach, and grandchildren Maggie Gorman of Gainesville, FL and Michael Gorman, of Atlanta, GA.

Marianne was born in Takoma Park, MD as the only child of Earl and Gwendolyn Sullivan. At age 7, Marianne and her parents moved to Ridgway, PA, her parents’ home town. Marianne attended Ridgway schools and graduated from high school with highest honors. After high school, Marianne attended Mercy School of Nursing in Pittsburgh, PA. While studying, she met Pittsburgh native David Walsh, who became her best friend and beloved husband of 61 years.

Upon receiving her RN degree, Marianne returned to Ridgway and worked at Elk County Hospital. A year later, she and David were married and moved to Washington DC where she took an RN position at the National Institute of Health, and David worked as a DC police officer while also obtaining his degree at American University. Their daughters Mary and Kara were born in DC and Maryland, respectively, and the family lived in Davidsonville, MD for most of the girls’ school years. Along the way, Marianne also worked as a nurse at Providence and North Arundel hospitals, taking a pause to raise her young daughters, and then resuming part-time until she retired when David’s career at IBM took them overseas for an exciting two-year adventure in Melbourne, Australia in 1989.

Marianne and David made the most of their time in Australia by traveling throughout the region and en route, including New Zealand, Cook Islands, Tahiti and Hawaii. Over the years they also traveled together to their mutual ancestral homeland Ireland several times, and explored Europe and Canada as well. Marianne’s interest in genealogy took them to Manchester, England to explore the city from which her non-Irish ancestors had emigrated, stopping to visit their daughter Kara who was living in London at that time. Almost as notable as their world travels were their East Coast family road trips, mostly to visit relatives in PA, for which Marianne was always magically prepared with any random item her daughters could ask for during the long car rides.

Not long after returning from Australia, Marianne and David settled into their cozy retirement home overlooking a verdant golf course, lake and rolling hills in Fayetteville, PA, which they enjoyed for the next 20 years. There you could find Marianne—quietly intellectually curious and a voracious reader— sitting at her table in front of the large windows looking across the valley surrounded by a dozen books at any given time in genres ranging across sciences, the arts, history, especially Celtic history, art, and language, and religion, which she filled with her index-card notes and related newspaper and magazine clippings to be treasured by her children and grandchildren forever. Marianne loved nature and gardening, and she had an impressive green thumb that yielded a houseful and yardful of thriving plants and flowers, where there was at least always one feeder and bath for the birds. One of her other passions was sewing, and she was always immaculately put together, often in an outfit of her own making, as well as sewing dresses for her daughters’ formal dances, holiday outfits for her grandchildren, decorative pillows and curtains for her home. Dogs and little children always brought a smile to Marianne’s face, and neighbors and strangers’ dogs alike were drawn to Marianne, with their innate instinct for kind humans.

A devoted Catholic, Marianne supported missions and the poor through her prayers and contributions. She sponsored and corresponded with young girls from impoverished families in Latin America through Unbound. She also wrote many thoughtful letters to her daughters, friends and extended family throughout her life, in her beautiful, left-handed cursive handwriting.

Marianne and David relocated to Fernandina Beach, FL in 2020 to be near their daughters. They joined St. Michael’s Parish, attended Mass and enjoyed many church events. During the last few years of her life, Marianne suffered from Alzheimer’s which eventually brought her earthly life to its end. Her family is incredibly grateful to Community Hospice for their loving support and guidance during her final days.

Colossians 3:12-14 says to clothe yourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, and Marianne quietly wore a cloak of these virtues her whole life, her calming presence always bringing comfort and peace to her husband and daughters, and all family and friends who knew and loved her.

Grásta ó Dhia ar a hanam – God Grace Her Soul.

A funeral service will be held at 2pm on Friday, March 22 at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Fernandina Beach, Florida. If friends desire, remembrances may be made through contributions to Salesian Missions (salesianmissions.org) and Unbound (unbound.org).