Mary Earlene Monica Lewis

Mary Earlene Monica "Mimi" Lewis, 84, of Marion, Iowa, died Sunday, September 28, 2025, at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Visitation from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, at Murdoch Funeral Home with Rosary at 3:30 p.m. Christian Mass of Burial will be held at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Marion, Iowa, at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, October 8, 2025. Burial will be in Walker Cemetery, Walker, Iowa, next to her father, Earl Ray Lewis; his wife, Bessie (Hudson) Lewis; and their son, Harold Ray Lewis. Funeral dinner will be held at St. Joseph's Catholic Church Hall in Marion, Iowa, for family and friends following the Mass.

Mary Earlene Lewis was born on September 6, 1941, at home on the Carnahan farm in Waubeek, Iowa, just outside of Central City, Iowa, the daughter of Earl Ray Lewis and Elizabeth Kathryn Marie (Stone) Norris Lewis. Mary Earlene was baptized at St. Stephen's Catholic Church in Central City, Iowa. She started school at St. Joseph's Catholic School in Marion, Iowa, when the Parish opened its elementary school in 1947. She was one of the first 1st graders to attend the new school. Her education continued in Maryland when the family moved there in 1953 after the death of her father, Earl Ray Lewis, in 1950 at 931 Central Ave, Marion, Iowa. Mary Earlene Lewis attended high school at The Catholic High School (TCHS) in Baltimore, MD, graduating in 1959. Then she went to St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing (three-year diploma program), graduating in 1962. She received her first license to practice nursing as a registered nurse in Baltimore, MD and her last nursing license in Iowa. She retired from nursing in Iowa in 1999 due to her failing health. She worked in various areas of nursing over her 37-year career. She received her bachelor's degree from St. Joseph's College in Maine in 1984.

Mary Earlene Lewis never married, but she loved her family dearly and thoroughly enjoyed being a sister, an aunt, a Great-Aunt, a Great-Great-Aunt, a Great-Great-Great-Aunt, a Great-Great-Great-Great-Aunt, and a Godmother to her brothers and sisters, as well as the many nieces and nephews in her family.

Mary Earlene Lewis was preceded in death by many family members, including her father Earl Ray Lewis in 1950 in Marion, Iowa; her mother Elizabeth Kathryn M. (Stone) Norris Lewis in 1993 in Baltimore, Maryland; her grandmother Nellie Mae (Kirk) Stone in 1960 in Baltimore, Maryland; her brothers Cecil A. Lewis in 1992, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Steven Le Roy Norris Jr. in 1980 in Texas; James Edward Norris in 2004 in Arizona, and her sister Elizabeth Elaine (Norris) Nordick Penn in 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Mary Earlene is survived by many family members, including her niece, Mary Stephanie (Nordick) Palewicz, her husband Albert, and their family in Maryland; her niece, Dorothy Johnston of Texas, her family in Marion, Iowa, and Texas; her nephew John Norris, his wife, Sabrina and their family in Kentucky; her niece Linda (Norris) Honick of Arizona and her family; her nephew Thomas Norris, his wife Rechille, and their family in Arizona; her nephew Karl A. Johnston, and his wife, Penny and their family of Marion, Iowa. And many family members in Maryland, Colorado, Iowa, California, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas.

Mary Earlene Lewis was known to be a loving, kind, and thoughtful person who shared her love and life with her family and many friends during her lifetime. She will be missed by many and remembered fondly.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her name to St. Jude’s's Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude’s Place, Memphis, TN 38105, and St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Marion, Iowa.