Marian Irene Greer

Marian Irene Greer died in her sleep at age 83 on January 22, 2024, during a rare late-night winter San Antonio thunderstorm that ushered her from Earth. Her children stayed with her through her last evening. Marian lived with a deep love and care for her family and friends and a continuous desire to learn more about the world, live with joy, and help others.

She was born on January 10, 1941, to Aleidus H. “A.H.” and Genevieve Lutz Vietor, part of a large family raised in Albert Lea, Minnesota. She attended Lincoln Elementary, St. Theodore’s Catholic School, St. Mary’s Junior High, and Albert Lea High School. St. Theodore’s principal and teacher Sr. Sean Clinch, O.S.F., remembered her forty years later as a “bright student who was so eager to learn.”

As a teen, she excelled in art, theater, and journalism and contemplated a career as an artist. In a family history she wrote in 2002, she joked her vision was “to go to Greenwich Village to be an artist, live in a garret and maybe die of ‘non-consumption.’”

She decided instead that higher education was her ticket to seeing more of the world. As she recalled, “In tenth grade, I transferred to Albert Lea High School, and for the first time, I thought about attending college. The Russians had launched Sputnik, and the pressure was on American schools to turn out better students. I was enrolled in college prep classes at this point and was pushed by some of my teachers to do well. For the first time, I met male teachers who knew what great art, music and literature were. Most of the men I knew in Albert Lea talked about farm implements, stock car races and weren’t much interested in art or culture or ‘guys in tights.’”

She received a partial scholarship to attend The College of Saint Teresa in Winona, Minnesota and her father paid most of the $2500 to go there, a huge sum to their family in those days. She was one of the few in her family to go to college, and as she recalled, “Some bet I would quit, but I was determined to have a different life out of Albert Lea,” conceding that, it is “still a pretty good town to raise a family.”

She enjoyed working on student publications and being in plays while working on her English, art, education studies. This is how she describes meeting her husband:

“In the summer of ’62, I attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison to take some classes I needed to graduate. I worked as a cocktail waitress and was asked to go to a late-night party. It was there I met an Air Force officer, 1st Lt. Dick Greer, stationed at Truax Field, and, almost immediately we realized that we wanted to marry….Jesse Richard ‘Dick’ Greer and I had a 2 ½ year courtship, and I took a job teaching 11th and 12th grade English in Columbus, Wisconsin, near Madison, where he was stationed.”

That Jesse and Marian met each other at a party makes great sense as both loved large get-togethers.

They married in April of 1964, then traveled as military families do. Unlike most in the military, they quickly outgrew base housing and had children in seven of the states they lived in: Wisconsin, New York, North Dakota, Arizona, Alaska, Virginia, and South Carolina. Marian often did the bulk of packing and fixing up the houses herself, often delegating painting and stripping wallpaper to her children. The three-story house in Virginia they purchased was in such rough shape that she told people that if she had a heart attack to “just let me lie and die.”

Eventually, like many people looking for jobs and a welcoming home, they moved to Texas where they remained the rest of their lives.

Marian described herself as a “homemaker, teacher, writer” which barely describes the things she did in her life. Three decades after receiving her undergraduate degree, she went back to school and received a Master’s in English from Incarnate Word in San Antonio.

She taught English, Journalism, Art, and Gifted programs in secondary and primary education. She volunteered for both school and church events, including being a Girl and Boy Scout Leader, Speech and Debate Parent Volunteer, a Laubach Literary Volunteer, Religious Education teacher, and Youth Ministry worker. She wrote and edited newspaper articles, magazines, and newsletters for much of her adult life, including for the Office of Pastoral Administration for the Archdiocese of San Antonio. She helped Oblate priests in training by coaching ESL candidates on their writing in English.

Marian and Jesse hosted refugees in their home, and often used their time and talents to help people through times of crisis in their lives.

She loved encouraging her children and took pride in all seven of them getting college educations. She was known as “Momo G” to her grandchildren and loved spending time with them playing games, putting together puzzles, baking, and going to concerts, museums, and gardens.

Marian was a legendary letter writer with beautiful handwriting. One of her most treasured possessions was a letter she received back from Hank Aaron after she sent him a letter of support during his campaign to set the home run record.

Like her mother, Marian was a sharp competitor. In one of her scrapbooks, she has a newspaper article of her and girls in her high school senior class claiming the record for putting the most people inside a phone booth. In 1959, shoving people in a phone booth was a global fad.

Marian loved playing cards, games, and was a passionate sports fan, with an odd collection of rooting interests from her travels. One draw of coming back to San Antonio was to make it easier to watch Spurs Basketball. She watched as many televised sporting events as she could and usually had a thoughtful opinion.

Marian inspired many in her recovery from three strokes in recent years, often counseling others going through rehabilitation on the progress that can be made through occupational and physical therapy and doing work on her own. She progressed from not being able to move or speak to being able to do most life activities herself and advocate for her own interests. Her therapists marveled at how hard she worked to get stronger and be able to move and then travel.

She learned to use new technologies and apps to become more self-sufficient and connected to others. She would often comment on family and friends’ Instagram posts with her own commentary, sometimes shocking her grandkids.

After she had a heart attack in August, she worked hard to be able to go to events she wanted to attend, like her niece’s wedding, Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers, and celebrating her recent birthday with family members. She knew her time left was limited, and she wanted to spend it with family and friends.

Even as her mobility became more limited, she always wanted to help people. When counseling a friend who had recently lost a parent, she texted him, “You will think of him every day. Such a blessing to have fine parents…. It’s very good to talk about our loved ones. They’re not gone, and they sometimes convey messages to us…. It’s comforting.”

In the family history she wrote, she concluded in her “Afterthoughts,” the following words:

“Most people like to imagine they’ve made a difference in the world and that they’ve accomplished something significant along the way…I wrote these stories to show how strong our roots are as family, and how we have survived so much. We can celebrate our accomplishments and mourn our failures and hope that our children will benefit from knowing more about us.”

Marian “Momo G” Greer has been a blessing to so many and lives in all of us.

Among many celebrating her life are her daughters Stephanie Stradley, Jennifer Whidby, Michelle Greer, sons James Greer, Thomas Greer, Jeffrey Greer. She is also survived by her grandchildren, Kindall Greer, Megan Benham, Christopher, Genevieve, and Joy Whidby, Eric and Katie Ogburn, Sabbath Greer, Zoe Costello, Jackson and Jessica Stradley, and Olivia Nolan, and great-grandson, Lincoln Benham. Listing the extended family and friends whom she loved and cared for would break the internet.

She is predeceased by her husband, her parents, and her daughter, Deborah Greer-Costello.

The following services honor her memory and celebrate her life are planned in San Antonio:

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15ROSARY SERVICE: 6 PMHOLY SPIRIT CATHOLIC CHURCH8134 BLANCO RD, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78216

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16FUNERAL MASS WITH RECEPTION: 10 AMHOLY SPIRIT CATHOLIC CHURCH

PROCESSION WILL FOLLOW TO FORT SAM HOUSTON CEMETERY1520 HARRY WURZBACH RDSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78209

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in her honor to Goodwill or whatever charity you believe may help people in need the most in your community.

We would like to thank all the generous people from Villa de San Antonio, Appletree Court in Richardson, and Brookdale Westlake Hills Community who enriched her life.