Marion Edith Runyon Civello was born in Wichita Falls, TX, to parents Marvin T. Runyon, Sr. and Lora Lee Runyon on January 25, 1929. On August 17, 2020, Marion was brought into Our Heavenly Father’s Fold, joining her husband Ellis, who passed three months prior. She was the third of four children, and was raised in Dallas, graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School. On December 10, 1948, she married the love of her life, Ellis J. Civello, Sr., the handsome Marine back from service in WWII. Marion and Ellis enjoyed a marriage of 71 years, raising three sons and a daughter. She was one of the super-moms of the fifties, sixties and seventies, raising her children while volunteering and working at St. Pius X Grade School. Kids of all ages knew and were fond of “Mrs. C.”, and always said hello as they went through the lunch line. She was much beloved by everyone she knew, throughout her days. Though she never attended college, she was nonetheless the unassuming intellect and “go to” for homework assignments that were stumping her kids. She was a natural at horticulture, math and trivia, and enjoyed bridge, dominos, and crocheting, as well as music ranging from Big Band to Nat King Cole and the Beatles. Marion and Ellis were founding members of St. Pius X Parish, and remained connected there many years before finally settling in Plano and attending St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church. While raising her family, Marion opened her doors to the neighborhood kids who were always welcome to stop in on Saturdays and all summer long to take a break and down some cold Kool-Aid or iced tea. During the school year her afternoons and evenings were busy taking her children to their sports practices and a myriad of other activities, followed always by family dinner, and sometimes even doing late night alterations or dress-making as a part-time seamstress after tucking the children in. Her devotion to her faith and husband and family was true and as boundless as her energy; into her eighties she hosted the family dinners for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and often for mid-summer Fourth of July festivities too. She could cook for two or twenty or more as her family grew, serving up some of the best turkey and dressing and fixin’s in all of north Texas. She knew when to let kids be kids, and when to set limits. She would come outside to play with the neighborhood kids from time to time, helping to build Christmas tree forts and telephone-pole teepees and snowmen with carrot noses… and pushing her children on a sled down hills with abandon on those special few snow days. Always her smile and love and joy in living life were contagious and brought warmth to the souls she touched. Marion, with her legacy of love, is survived by her children, of whom she was exceptionally proud: Sam (wife Doreen), John (wife Tammy), Tony (wife Charlotte) and Missy. She is also survived by her eleven loving grandchildren: Sam (wife Ashley), Andy, and Lt. Dan of the DFD (wife Jordan); Michael, Jacqulin and Dominic; Jeremy (wife Deanna), Jennifer and Josh; Phillip and Alessia. Marion was also blessed with and survived by ten great grandchildren: Hogan and Griffin, Emma and Olivia, Hunter and Hailey, Rush and Raegan, Ford David and Sawyer Ellis.
