Marcia Grace was born in Pittsburgh, PA to Marcia Monzo Cremona and Joseph "George" Cremona. She grew up surrounded by family – her parents, her younger sister Josephine, her Uncle Frank and Aunt Jean Cremona, her Monzo aunts, uncles and cousins in Pittsburgh, and her Cremona family in Gozo / Malta where she lived for two years as a young girl. Family was everything to Marcia.
During her senior year of high school, she met Richard Connelly, four years her senior. The summer after she graduated, they began dating. Richard waited four years for her while she finished college at Rosemont, near Philadelphia. After she graduated, they married and she began her short career as an elementary school teacher. When they started their family, she became a full-time homemaker and mother. She resumed her teaching career as a math tutor when her children were grown.
Richard and Marcia were married sixty-two years. They shared three children: Sheri, Debbie and Greg. They saw each other through the good times and the difficult. They moved away from their hometown and their families to Geneva, IL and then again four years later to Roswell, GA. The moves resulted in a close immediate family unit and a deepening of faith. Their children grew and made families of their own, and provided Rich and Marcia with eight grandchildren, in which she delighted. The times Marcia cherished were spent with her husband, her children and those beloved grandchildren. She poured her whole being into them, loving them, teaching them, taking immense pride in their accomplishments, always praying for them and seeking to guide them.
Her accomplishments live on in her family, her friendships and her church community, which she served as a newcomer host and small faith group leader, and in the many students she impacted. Her family has treasured the stories of her kindness, patience, faithfulness and the impact she has had on so many through the stories shared with them from college roommates, friends from all over the country and family members since the news of her death.
She is preceded in death by her parents, and her beloved daughter, Debbie. She is survived by her sister, Josephine (Tommy), husband Richard, daughter Sheri, son Greg and daughter-in-love Melanie, son-in-love Terry, and her eight grandchildren: Justin, Sabrina, Bryce, Jack, Evan, Eli, Gracie and Ella.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Marcia's name to St Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Marcia could not bear the thought of any child suffering, and St Jude's was her favorite charity.
A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 at 10:30am at St. Peter Chanel Catholic Church with a reception to follow in the Parish Hall.