Marie Reilly Heed

Marie Reilly Heed, age 87, passed away on August 8, 2021. A Graveside/Committal Service will be held Saturday, June 4, 2022 at 3:30 PM at Calvary Cemetery, 435 West Troy Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46225. Services will be livestreamed through the following link approximately 10 minutes prior to start of the service. https://www.facebook.com/LeppertMortuariesNora/videos/?ref=page_internal Marie was born in Bronxville, NY on June 22, 1934, daughter of Peter C. and Jeanette P. (nee Parker) Reilly, and grew up in Larchmont, NY. She enjoyed sports and played Field Hockey in high school. Marie met Jack, her beloved husband of 54 years, when he took her and a friend on a sailing excursion across Long Island Sound. Marie graduated from Rye Country Day School (NY) and attended Smith College in Northampton, MA. Marie held every family member and friend close to her heart and once you entered her life, you never left it. She had a remarkable way of recounting events and details that highlighted the stories she shared. Those who knew Marie best remember her for her generous nature, fun and loving spirit, and dry wit. A devoted mother, Marie was a popular Cub Scout Den Mother for her son Thomas and Brownies and Girl Scout Den Mother for her daughter Katharine. She was also a source of inspiration and encouragement for their friends, who affectionately referred to her, not as Mrs. Heed, but as Aunt Marie. These deep-seated relationships lasted years after Thomas, Katharine and their friends had settled in various locations throughout the country. She and Jack moved frequently in the first 20 years of their marriage. She had a unique ability to bring beauty and individual design to each of her homes. Marie possessed a love for decorating and adhered to the Golden Gate Bridge School of Design approach. This meant that she started in the first room of each home and applied her unique sense of style one-by-one as she moved through the house. And, if she was lucky enough to still be living there when she finished the last room, she would begin again in the first. An artistic spirit, Marie enjoyed needlepoint and created fantastic 3D Perspectives with Vue D'Optique, a popular perspective art form that first emerged in the 18th Century. Marie loved Christmas. Every year, she had a tree and decorated the house with favorite ornaments and dancing Santas. She collected pinecones and milkweed pods to use as the backdrop for tiny scenes of winter and the holiday season. Her children still treasure the Christmas stockings she made for them when they were small. Her passion for gardening was a constant source of pleasure throughout her life. Through her gardens, she expressed and received great joy. And each garden fit the location and enhanced the home Marie found herself in: a rock wall garden with mosses and tiny rock plants in Wisconsin; banks of day lilies and iris in Connecticut; and a wandering path through trees punctuated with wildflower surprises such as Jacks-in-the-pulpit and trillium at their first Westlake home. In addition to their home in Westlake, OH, Marie and Jack came to love Seabrook and John's Island, SC where they also maintained homes from 1985 to 2006. She especially enjoyed the beauty of the sunsets on the marsh that abutted their John's Island home, and where pirates once roamed. Preceding Marie in death were her parents Peter C. and Jeanette (nee Parker) Reilly, and her husband Jack. In addition to her son Thomas, daughter-in-law Kathleen, grandsons John and William, and daughter Katharine, other survivors include her sisters Sara Jean Wilhelm and Patricia Davis, brothers-in-law Clarke and Mike, and nine nephews. As long as there is a memory, there is life. As long as we hold onto our memories of her, we hold Marie's life. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Botanical Garden - Holden Forests and Gardens, or to a Charity close to your heart. Leppert Mortuary- Nora Chapel, Indianapolis, Indiana assisting with local arrangements and livestreaming. Please visit: www.leppertmortuary.com or www.buschcares.com to view the obituary and to share a memory or story. To view the memorial service that was held in October 2021 at Busch Funeral Home, Avon, Ohio, please visit https://buschcares.obitview.com/marie-heed.