Marie A. Doyle

MARIE A. DOYLE (Nee Morgan) AGE 94.

Beloved wife of Thomas J. Doyle (deceased). Loving Mother of Aline Doyle, Monica Doyle (Christopher Weisent), James Doyle (Dawn Mann), John Doyle and Nora Doyle (Peter Gould). Most Loving Nana of Nicholas Doyle, Ryan Doyle and Daniel Doyle and Fiona Gould. Dear Sister of Alice Kennedy (deceased). Loving Aunt of Bill Cavanaugh and Morgan Cavanaugh and the following deceased: Cathryn Jackson, Mark Cavanaugh and Ellen Cavanaugh.

Marie and Thomas were longtime parishioners of St. Margaret Mary Church in South Euclid from 1956 until 2010 when it closed. Marie then went on to be an active member of Immaculate Conception Parish on Superior Ave. in Cleveland from 2011 until her death.

Mom was very devoted to her faith and family. However, you dare not call her from 3:00 to 4:00 during Rosary and Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, or from 7:30 to 8:00 when Jeopardy was on. She was always an avid reader, amazing with crossword puzzles (did them in ink!) and learned something new almost every single day. If you had a worry, you had this woman praying for you.

Marie collected many nicknames during her long life. Her father called her his Little Wootsie; her love of the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy radio show led to the nickname Charlie, which became Aunt Charlie when nieces and nephews arrived; her many high school friends called her Morgan; when she married Tom, she picked up the moniker Dooley (please don't google Tom Dooley — they really loved each other but had a dark sense of humor); her iron discipline caused some of her children to refer to her as General Patton, and her corny jokes led many of them to refer to her as Bob Hope. The Queen, the Saint — if you knew her, those need no explanation, but most importantly she was Mom, Mother, Mummie, Mumsy, Mama.

She was a lifelong opera lover, who was known to occasionally burst into a random aria, and then explain the hokey plot of the opera to a largely unappreciative audience of whichever of her children were around.

She largely indulged her progeny's love of animals with a steady parade of cats, rabbits, a dog, guinea pig, gerbils, turtles, goldfish, and a garter snake and some frogs she didn't know about. She loved to tell the story about how Tom felt so competitive with the cats that he snuck down to the kitchen early one morning to see who was fed their breakfast first. When he lost that competition to the cats, he exclaimed, "Aha! I knew it!". She calmly pointed out that this was maybe a tad childish, and then regaled friends and family with this hilarious tale for the next 50 years.

She raised her brood with good values, and then gave them a lot of independence. Her children had a wide array of interests and she indulged most of them: chauffeuring to infinite play rehearsals; companion to endless classic movie double features that she had already seen on their first run; Funny car races, model building, juvenile delinquency, jumping from the second floor bedroom window, hatred of cooking, love of art, Indians baseball fanaticism and on and on.

When she got steamed at one of her kids, and there were countless good reasons for this, she'd run through every single name ("AlineMonicaJamieJohnNora") in exasperation until she just sputtered "whatever your name is"! The kids had a running joke about this, so she finally decided it was just easier to give them numbers.

Hers was a lively, noisy household, and over the years, Marie hosted countless dinner parties, family holiday feasts, kids' birthdays, and her St. Margaret Mary's Circle group gabfests. She took her turn carpooling kids to St. Margaret Mary's Elementary School, and in the days before mandatory seatbelts, she could cram up to 9 kids in the station wagon. The only casualties were a few flattened PB&J sandwiches.

When Tom died in 1974, she had 5 children under 17 to raise on her own. A few years after that, her mother moved in and needed quite a bit of care also. Life got really difficult at times, but her children never knew because she just handled it and never complained, never let on. During one of their last conversations, #5 pointed this out and expressed awe, gratitude and love for her super heroics. Marie looked a little bewildered and just said, "But that was my job."

Number 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 will miss her for the rest of their days.

Interment will be in Calvary Cemetery. Family and Friends are invited to meet for Mass of Christian Burial 9:30 AM Saturday at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church (formerly St. Gregory the Great Church Parish) 1545 South Green Road, South Euclid 44121. FRIENDS MAY CALL AT THE MAHER MELBOURNE FUNERAL HOME 5236 MAYFIELD ROAD, LYNDHURST, (EAST OF RICHMOND ROAD) FRIDAY 3-7 PM.

The family respectfully asks that masks be worn, and social distancing be respected during visitation at funeral home and at church. Thank you for your understanding.

The family suggests donations in Marie's name to The Cleveland Catholic Charities or to the Hospice of the Western Reserve.