Martha Crans Dunn

Martha Crans Dunn of Red Rock, Texas passed away peacefully at her home on January 22, 2025 surrounded by her family. She was known to everyone as Marni Dunn. Marni was born on May 10, 1951 at Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland, Canada. She was the third of four girls born to her father, Lt Col Robert Edward Crans, and mother, Martha Jane (Waller) Crans. As an “Air Force brat,” her childhood was spent in many places including Maine, Florida, California, Missouri, Michigan, Washington DC, Weisbaden, Germany and Bangkok, Thailand. She graduated from high school in Bangkok and used to enjoy saying she survived “Youth in Asia.” She attended college briefly at Culver Stockton College in Canton, Missouri and later in life at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. She had a beneficial impact on many people through her work in the field of mental health and later in the field of child care. She was certified as a Child Care Administrator and, in 1992, she started her own day care center in Austin called Treehouse Child Care Center which she directed until she retired.

Marni met her husband, Bill, in 1973 when they both worked at St. Jude’s children’s mental hospital in Austin Texas. Bill was immediately taken by her inner and outer beauty and they began dating in May of 1974. They began living together on Valentine’s Day in 1975 and married on 12/6/75. They and their children lived most of their lives in the Austin area except for 1 year in Lubbock Texas. Marni enjoyed going on road trips with her husband Bill, her sister(s) or her daughter and granddaughters, around the country to different National Parks and to visit with distant family and friends but she especially liked the Four Corners area of the USA. If you wanted to see her eyes light up, all you had to do was say “Let’s go on a road trip.” She was also quite an artist and excellent at various arts and crafts. She would make dolls that looked like and wore old clothes of a particular child that she would then sell or give to people. She also made artisan Santas to sell or give people. She was a very private person but beloved by all she met.

Marni was very family oriented and loved spending time with her children and grandchildren. She is survived by her husband, William G. (Bill) Dunn; her children Ericka McDonald and her husband Neil, Hyatt Dunn and his wife Donna (DJ), and Karine (Kari) Dunn and her husband Gabby (Gab) Guerrero, as well as an older sister Roane (Ranie) Gray and 8 grandchildren; Megan and Kelsie McDonald, Justin and Jacob and Cody Dunn, and Miranda and Alyssa and Reanna Guerrero, all of whom she loved with all her heart. She is also survived by nieces and nephews too numerous to list. She is joining her parents and two sisters, Jane Jett and Kacy Crans, in the afterlife.

Viewing and visitation is from 5-7pm followed by a brief service on Tuesday, 1/28/25, at Cook Walden Funeral Home, 6100 N. Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78752. A memorial service is set for 2-4pm on 3/8/25 at Red Rock Community Center, 114 Red Rock Rd, Red Rock, TX 78662.