December 2, 1934 - February 17, 2024

Marion Jane Wilmot Graham passed away on Saturday, February 17, 2024, at home in Summerville, SC. She was the matriarch of the Graham family who was given the nickname “Mana” by the first of her grandchildren. We found out later that in the Hawaiian language, Mana means “special”, and it fits. Daughter of Jennie Conklin Wilmot and Wilfred Wilmot, Marion was born in Stamford, CT on December 2, 1934, in her grandparents’ home, only one-half mile from the one room school which she attended when she was younger. The schoolhouse was formerly a Quaker meeting house on property purchased by the first settlers of the area where they bought the property from an Indian tribe for “12 hatchets, 12 looking glasses, 12 blankets and a certain amount of wampum.” Marion met her future husband, Donald Graham, at Stamford High School where they made their first walk down the aisle for graduation in 1952. As she attended nursing school at the Stamford Hospital School of Nursing, Don worked for American Cyanamid knowing full well that his draft number was getting closer. He joined the Army, and his first mail was a draft notice among the many letters they exchanged until December 18, 1954, when they married in Stamford. After she graduated from nursing school in 1955, she joined him in Germany where she helped with pre-natal training of GI wives. She returned to the US in 1956, months before her first born came and Don arrived from Germany. Marion’s nursing career was interspersed with family moves to NY, IN, UT, SC, FL and back to SC as she worked OB/GYN, CCU, Rehab, ICU and back to her favorite OB/GYN. Upon retirement, she attended to her mother Jennie Wilmot, before her death and her daughter, Kim, a graduate from Purdue, who passed away in 2017 after a 25-year career with GM, but with MS since a junior in college. Marion is survived by her husband, Donald Graham, five sons: Dennis (Debbie), CSU graduate, Greg (Tony), graduate of USC, David (Vickie), graduate of Purdue, Brian (Veronica), graduate of Notre Dame, and Patrick (Kathleen), graduate of USC; seven grandchildren: Victoria Merritt (Dan), Christopher ( Jaime), Sofia, Kevin, Ryan, Spencer and Tyler; four great-grandchildren: Nadiana, Sammy, Nico and Lena. Marion’s grandmother came to the US when she was 16 years old from Finland and it appeared that heritage was primarily Finnish and English. After years of genealogy research, it expanded widely to the extent that Marion is the 38th great-granddaughter of “Brian Boru”, the high king of Ireland, more Irish that her husband has been able to establish. A visitation of friends and family will be held on Tuesday, February 27th, 2024 at James A. Dyal Funeral Home, 303 South Main Street, Summerville, SC 29483, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. A funeral mass will be held at St. John the Beloved on Wednesday, February 28th, 2024 at 11 a.m. Burial will be held at Roxbury Cemetery in Stamford, Conn. at a later date, which is where most of her relatives are interred.

ARRANGEMENTS BY JAMES A. DYAL FUNERAL HOME, 303 SOUTH MAIN STREET, SUMMERVILLE, SC 29483 (843)8434040