Marianne Delores Polickoski

The family will receive visitors from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5, 2021, at Hanes-Lineberry North Elm Greensboro beginning with a rosary prayer service. A Funeral Mass and celebration of her life will be at 1 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021, at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, with final internment at Westminster Gardens afterward.

Marianne is survived by John, her husband of 63 years; her three children, Patricia of Greensboro, Robert (Rebecca) of Fredericksburg, VA, and James (JoAnn) of Chattanooga, TN; 12 grandchildren (Joseph, Elizabeth, Thomas; Jennifer, Stephanie, Peter, David; Kathleen, Sarah, Nicholas, Johnathan, and Margaret); and two great-grandchildren (Georgia and Isabella).

She was born in January 1935 to Thomas J. and Anna M. Blaine. Marianne grew up in Brooklyn and Lynbrook, NY, and graduated from Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School in 1953. She then started an exciting job as a fashionable Manhattan secretary for the Carrier Corporation supporting the engineers designing the first nuclear powered submarine. After swapping a blind date with a West Point cadet, she met the love of her life, and after much ballroom dancing and ice skating, married newly minted 2LT John Polickoski at the West Point Catholic Chapel in 1957.

From there, she began her life as a dedicated Army wife, proud Mom, officers’ wives’ club leader, choir member and cantor, performing artist, and world traveler. After Patricia was born, her world travels began, being stationed in Germany that included skiing at Garmisch, visiting Frankenstein’s castle, traveling to Rome and Venice, seeing the Passion Play at Oberammergau, making a pilgrimage to the grotto at Lourdes, and taking a midnight train through East Germany to West Berlin where they demanded her “papers.” Following Robert’s birth in Germany, Marianne supported John during multiple stateside tours, buying their first house in Indiana, surviving a year alone in snowy Syracuse while John was serving in Vietnam, and building a suburban family life near Washington, DC, and Sacramento, CA, all while singing in the Army post chapel choirs, being in parish theater productions, having fun in officers’ wives’ clubs theme parties, singing at the DC-area Wolftrap National Park for the Performing Arts, giving birth to James, completing an Associate’s Degree, and even learning tennis.

Following John’s military retirement, Marianne chose Greensboro as her ultimate destination following a Sweet Adelines trip to the area, noting how beautiful the foliage and flowers were. She quickly became immersed in her beloved Our Lady of Grace (OLG) Catholic Church as a school library volunteer, helping organize the school buses, president of the OLG Women’s Club, leading the OLG Bible Group, singing in the choir, and leading in the liturgy as cantor. She also served as president and in other roles of the Knights of Columbus Ladies’ Auxiliary. She led civically as well, serving as both president and chaplain of the Greater Greensboro Republican Women’s Club. Following Marianne’s empty nest “retirement,” she and John enjoyed their condo’s water view of Lake Norman and traveled the U.S. and the world on multiple cruises, riverboats, and group tours – all while keeping pace with grandchildren’s first communions, confirmations, graduations, and weddings.

Marianne lived, experienced, and led in both her military and local communities and family enough for three lifetimes. She is truly loved and missed, and after battling strokes in recent years, is home with her dear Lord and the angels. We love and miss her – our dear wife, mother, and grandmother.

Donations may be made to Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, 2203 West Market St., Greensboro, NC 27403.