Grace Eleanor Marrion

Grace was born August 10, 1933 to Dee W. Stone and Irene Stockvis Stone of Forest Hills, New York. From an early age she was a talented athlete, excelling in tennis, field hockey, and especially lacrosse. She was a proud junior member of The West Side Tennis Club, the former home of the U.S. Open (then known as the U.S. National Championships), and an even prouder member of the legendary Blue Team at The Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills, from which she graduated in 1950. She went on to The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she continued her multi-sport career while pursuing a degree in psychology.

While at William and Mary, she met the love of her life, Robert W. Marrion, a young lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, stationed at nearby Naval Station Norfolk. Originally paired with different partners in a group blind date, Grace and Bob knew right away that they were meant for each other and promptly left their original dates behind. Things got very serious very quickly, and to Grace’s great relief her father, a retired U.S. Army colonel, didn’t hold it against her that she had taken up with a naval officer.

Grace and Bob were married in 1955, shortly after the conclusion of Bob’s tour in the Navy, and they started their life together in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Bob attended law school. After law school, Grace and Bob decided to settle in southeastern Connecticut, first in New London, and then in Niantic, where they stayed for over 60 years. Grace expertly managed a household with five children and assorted pets, making it look much easier than it really was – a feat that still amazes her children.

After her children were grown, Grace began a new career in early childhood development. She earned a master’s degree from Southern Connecticut State University and a Ph.D. from University of Connecticut and devoted herself to helping infants and toddlers with delays and disabilities, culminating with her service as director of the Birth to Three program at Project Learn, a regional educational service center serving twenty-five towns in southeastern Connecticut. She was an inspired and inspiring leader to her team of teachers and therapists, bringing life-changing support and guidance to a generation of children in need.

Grace was elegant, kind and always poised, and she had a dry and occasionally devastating sense of humor. In her later years she often surprised and amused her children with comments that were clearly meant to be kept in-house. She maintained her athletic edge well into adulthood, especially on the tennis court, where she gave no quarter and expected none in return. Bob was especially fond of recounting how Grace, well into her seventies, dazzled some young East Lyme High lacrosse players with an impromptu display of stick skills that she probably hadn’t practiced in fifty years. Bob and Grace were well known in Niantic for their long walks around town and on the Niantic Bay boardwalk. In the colder months, she enjoyed shorter walks with her children around the “duck pond” next to Waterford Public Library.

Grace was a devoted and beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was predeceased by her husband Bob, her cherished son Christopher, her sister Mary Inwright, and her brother Dee W. Stone, Jr. She is survived by her children Ruth, Catherine, Tom and his wife Gwen, and Faith and her husband Bob; her seven grandchildren Henry and Raymond Marrion, Sarah, Andrew and Noah Lerch, Robert Halenda, and Olivia Burton; and her great-granddaughter Lucy Grace Marrion.

On Sunday, January 25, 2026, at Fulton-Theroux Funeral Home in Niantic, calling hours will be from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. Grace’s green burial at Fountain Hill Cemetery in Deep River will be private.