Marion DiVestea passed peacefully to Eternal Life Oct. 31 at Bayside Manor in Keansburg. Born Marion Jean Jan. 9, 1925 at Monmouth Memorial in Long Branch, she was the daughter of the late Lester and Julia (Lynch) Davis.
Marion lived in Red Bank and attended St. James Grammar School until her dad passed away and she and her mom moved to the Bronx where she met the love of her life Daniel DiVestea playing stick-ball in the street outside their apartment building. After she graduated from Evander Childs High School in the Bronx, Marion was a clerk at American Express in Manhattan and then a secretary at the Singer Sewing Machine Company in their Latin American department for 11 years. Daniel served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and they were married Sept. 4, 1949. In 1960 Daniel was stricken with Multiple Sclerosis and in 1963 they moved back to her beloved hometown of Red Bank with their two daughters where Marion lovingly cared for Daniel until his death in 1979.
Marion went back to secretarial work after Danny died; first for a Red Bank law firm and eventually for the Communication Media Department at Brookdale Community College where she retired in 1997 to care for her mother Julia and stepdad Theodore Tolendino until their passing in 1997 and 1998. Marion lived for six years at Applewood Estates in Freehold before moving to Bayside Manor in 2013. Marion was always a kind, loving caregiver and we were privileged to have her in our lives for so many years.
Marion was a very active member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies Auxiliary Post 2179 and the Gold Star Wives of America, Monmouth Chapter, serving as secretary for both for many years. She was an extraordinary minister with St. Mary’s Colts Neck. She was an avid card player at the Red Bank Senior Center and loved to go on bus trips.
She is survived by daughters, Corinne (Whitehead) and husband Patrick Geiger of Tuckerton and Carol (Boccellato) and husband Robert Bryant of Red Bank; six grandchildren, Theresa Whitehead, Brian and Jamie Boccellato, Donna (Whitehead) and Vernon Halpin, Joseph and Heather Whitehead, Jessica Whitehead and fiancé Breanna Logue and Patricia Geiger; and six great-grandchildren, Jocelyn Amelung, Eliana and Caelin Boccellato, and Kaitlynn, Karleigh and Maddison Halpin.
The family would like to thank Bayside Manor and Homeside Hospice for the excellent care they provided mom in her time of greatest need.
Visitation was Monday, Nov. 5 at Thompson Memorial Home, Red Bank. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Nov. 6 at St. James RC Church, Red Bank. Interment followed at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Middletown.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial donation to Alzheimer’s New Jersey, 400 Morris Ave., Suite 251, Denville, NJ 07834-1365.
