Marian O. Wilson

Marian O. Wilson passed away on the evening of December 22, 2014, as she was recovering from cardiac surgery, in Wilmington, NC. She was born on October 28, 1927, to Robert and Iva Winkler Swartz in Oliver Township, near McVeytown, PA. The seventh of eight children, she was the last surviving sibling. In 1946, she married Paul C. Wilson, who grew up on the farm adjacent to her family's property. They had four children, David, Andrea, Leon and Beth. For two years after she and Paul were married, they lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where David was born. They returned to PA, where she lived in Lewistown and Harrisburg, then Altoona, until moving to Wilmington, NC in 2007. She held various jobs, including selling Avon and Tupperware, serving as a church secretary, running a real estate Multi-List office, clerking at Hess's Department Store, and delivering a daily 400-newspaper route. Marian particularly enjoyed dinners at the Olive Garden, playing cards, watching horse races and reruns of Matlock on television, and forming close bonds with her hairdressers. Always very civic-minded, she donated gallons of O+ blood to the Red Cross over the years. In PA she was active in her church, worked at the polls on election days, and volunteered in the Morrisons Cove Home Gift Shop. Moving to Wilmington at age 80, she began meeting new friends and placing thank-you calls for Cape Fear Habitat for Humanity. More recently, she added volunteering at the Bellamy Mansion Museum in Wilmington. She is survived by daughter Beth Wilson of Rosendale, NY, daughter Andrea Belletti and husband John of Wilmington, NC, 11 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband Paul and sons David and Leon. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in her name to Cape Fear Habitat for Humanity or to Bellamy Mansion Museum. Marian will be laid to rest beside her husband Paul on January 3, 2015, in Duncansville, PA. The family invites local friends to celebrate her life at a memorial service at Wrightsville United Methodist Church on January 17 at 11:00 am. Andrews Market Street Chapel