Marion Frances (Isom) Wood, 91, died peacefully on January 29, 2022. She was a proud lifelong resident of Charlestown Massachusetts, born there on May 19, 1930. The middle child of the late Kelso Isom and Marie (Gerard) Isom, she grew up in Charlestown with 4 brothers and 4 sisters after her father, a Navy Pharmacist Mate, was relocated from Haiti and the Virgin Islands, (where he met her mother Marie) to the Chelsea Naval Hospital.
Marion was married to William “Winkie” Wood and is the cherished mother of William Wood Jr. and his wife Maureen, Cindy Lyman and her husband Frank, and Randy Wood and his wife Debby. She is the beloved sister to Robert Isom and his wife Julia, Christine Musker and her husband Larry and the late Laura Crawley, Kelso Isom, Carl Isom, Marie Hubbard, Ruth Sherwood and John Isom. She loved her grandchildren and was Nana to William III, Emily, Miriam and Nicholas with whom she had very special memories from many years at “Nana Camp”! She has many nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, and great-grand nieces and nephews. She has many lifelong friends.
Her greatest love was her husband Winkie who she met in the second grade and became friends with while attending St. John’s Episcopal Church. The only time she ventured out of Charlestown was when she rode the train, on her own and across the country, to San Bernadino California to marry him while he served in the Air Force. They lived both in San Bernadino and Orange New Jersey before returning to Charlestown to raise their family. They were married for 51 years before his early death in 2003.
She especially loved her sisters Ruthie and Marie, who especially loved her. You would often see her with Ruthie having coffee at Papa Gino’s and Marie was a great support to her in her later years, enjoying activities together, sharing many memories and with whom she was not afraid to disagree with once in a while!
As a girl, with her family, she was active in St. John’s Episcopal Church, attending youth groups and singing in the choir. She later taught Sunday School for many years and served on St. John’s Vestry, Alter Guild, Annual Fair Committees and other church groups. For many years she represented St. John’s at the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts Convention and the Episcopal Church Women, ECW. In the 1970s and 1980s, with a small group of others, she devoted her heart and her time to St. Johns when the church was in jeopardy of closing and was later very proud that their efforts began a true renewal of St. John’s, now a thriving community serving Charlestown. She was proud that she was the oldest and longest living parishioner and loved St. John’s until the day she died.
She loved her Charlestown and remained active within the community. She was a founding member of the Charlestown Lions and was a member of the Bunker Hill Association, Charlestown Preservation Society, Charlestown School Girls and the Friends of the John Harvard Mall.
Visiting hours will be held on Thursday, February 3, 2022, from 9:00 am to 10:30 am at the Carr Funeral Home, 220 Bunker Hill Street, Charlestown MA followed by a funeral service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 27 Devens Street Charlestown, to which relatives and friends are invited to attend. Masks are required. The funeral service will begin at 11 am and can be watched via Live Stream at www.stjohns02129.org. She will be laid to rest with her beloved Winkie at Woodlawn Cemetery, where, she often said, he was waiting for her on a cloud.
In lieu of flowers, kindly make a memorial donation in Marion’s name to the St. John’s Church Window Restoration Fund, c/o St. John’s Episcopal Church, 27 Devens Street, Charlestown, MA 02129.