Connie Grace (Durfee) Marion, 80, of LaFayette, NY passed away surrounded by her immediate family on Friday, February 23, 2024, at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, NY.

     Connie’s genuine smile was a welcoming presence in the room for so many people. They included the clients who found healing through her work as a marriage and family therapist and the members of the close community she shared in nurturing through many decades of personal and organizational growth. Her interests reflected her desire to bring the light and splendor of nature into her home and lift the spirit. She enjoyed flower gardening, singing, sewing, and late-in-life painting. Her unwavering devotion to family shone through in endless cooking interspersed with driving to piano and swim lessons, planning family reunions, and knitting gifts. She was an avid reader and watcher of birds at the feeder. Despite her welcoming demeanor, she had an assertive, determined streak, which you knew when you heard her yelling at the squirrels digging up her precious bulbs!

     Connie was born in Penn Yan, NY on Aug. 16, 1943, to parents Arthur Edson Durfee, an agricultural extension agent, and Martha Bristol Cross, both college graduates. She was the eldest of three sisters, with Ruth and Marjorie two and five years younger. The family settled in Ithaca, NY where she met and married her high school sweetheart, Roland Maurice Marion. Together they navigated the downsides of both being firstborn children, and they remained devoted for 58 years of marriage, sustaining each other through the extreme highs and lows of life.

     The Marions moved to Syracuse, NY, where Roland was employed by General Electric as an electrical engineer. Early on, Connie’s career transitioned from nursing, which built on her studies at the College of Wooster, the University of Rochester (BSN), and Syracuse University (MSN), to marriage and family therapy. This occupation embodied the lifelong reward she found in supporting and nurturing personal healing and growth. For over three decades she grew her skills with clients of Onondaga Pastoral Counseling Center. When OPCC closed in 2007 she was their Director of Education. Connie then established her own business, Pastoral Care Education, which continued the mission of educating clergy and other care-givers to enhance their counseling and pastoral care skills.

     For much of her life, Connie was deeply engaged in spiritual development which was largely intertwined with the life of Rapha Community, an ecumenical group whose members bring a diversity of beliefs. In this nurturing environment she pursued her own growth, displayed her own vulnerability, and encouraged growth and change in the hearts and lives of her close community of fellow travelers. This leadership and impact extended into her professional work, where she guided a lifelong stream of people and organizations through healing and growth. She left a long legacy of improved lives.

     Connie’s death, stemming from an acute cardiac incident, followed many years in which bodily constraints, notably osteoarthritis, joint replacements, and back pain, took a prominent role in her daily life. Bent but not broken by these setbacks, she adapted and accepted change, which allowed her continued joy through these challenging years.

     Connie is pre-deceased by her parents and her sister Marj (Wayne) Marion of Olympia, Washington. She is survived by her husband, sister Ruth (Ken) Gilbert of Champaign, Illinois, son Michael (Claire Picard) of Bar Harbor, Maine, and son Scott (Annie) and her adored young grandson Alex, of Newport, Oregon. 

     Calling hours will be held on Friday, April 12 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at the Eaton-Tubbs Fayetteville Chapel, 7191 E. Genesee Street, Fayetteville, NY. A memorial service to honor Connie’s life will be held on Saturday, April 13 at 1:00 PM at University United Methodist Church, 324 University Ave., Syracuse NY, with reception to follow.

     In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to your charity of choice.