Marion T. Boden of Hampton Bays died on September 5 at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, surrounded by family. She was 94, and just two hours earlier, she had been feeding carrots to her granddaughter’s horse when she became ill.
Ms. Boden was born in Brooklyn to Augustus and Marion Bullock. She attended St. Agnes Grammar School and Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School. One of her favorite, though allegedly not too frequent, teenage activities was to skip school with a group of friends and go to the New York Paramount to see such notables as Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey. Despite this, she graduated from high school during the worst of the Great Depression and got a then-coveted job with the New York Telephone Company to help support her family. In her later years, after she lost her sight, she would amuse herself by mentally translating English sayings into Latin.
During World War II, she married Frank X. Boden, who predeceased her in 1987.
Survivors said her favorite saying was, “Isn’t nature wonderful!” and that every day she would thank God for the beauty surrounding her little house on the hill. Before she died, she heard Joan Rivers joke about a woman who passed away. Friends were trying to console the family by saying she had gone to a better place. Joan Rivers said, “Are you kidding? What do you mean a better place? She had a house in the Hamptons.” Survivors said Ms. Boden loved the joke because she had a house in the Hamptons with a lovely garden and a view of Shinnecock Bay from her deck.
Ms. Boden is survived by four daughters, Marion of Hampton Bays, Jane Muir of Hampton Bays and Florida, Nancy “Midge” of New Jersey and Laura of Hampton Bays and Scarsdale. She is also survived by two sons-in-law, William Muir and Lucas Torres. She was predeceased by son-in-law, Vincent Sforza.
She is survived by her grandchildren, Joseph Sforza and wife Kelly Halloran, Teresa Lambe and husband Gerald, Jane Sellery and husband David, William Muir and wife Christa, Alice DeSarno and husband Christopher, John Muir, Scott Hodges and Steven Hodges and wife LouAnn Raymond, and Emily Boden Torres; 14 great-grandchildren; and a brother, Augustus “Red” Bullock of Massachusetts and his family.
Although related only by marriage, Ms. Boden was thought of as a “sister” and “aunt” to many in the large Boden clan. They include her surviving sisters and brothers-in-law, Patricia Boden, Anne Riggs, Richard Racioppi, Angie Boden and Edwin Boden.
Funeral arrangements were under the direction of the R.J. O’Shea Funeral Home in Hampton Bays. Family members played an important part in her funeral Mass at St. Rosalie’s Catholic Church in Hampton Bays, which included the singing of the Ave Maria by her granddaughter Alice and a eulogy delivered by her son-in-law Bill. Burial was at Good Ground Cemetery in Hampton Bays.
on Sep 15, 2014