MARCELLA 'MARCIE' McCARTNEY-NEWMARK

Marcella 'Marcie' McCartney-Newmark (1937-2018)

10/9/2018
BY ALLISON DUNN
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Marcella “Marcie” McCartney-Newmark, who worked with a physician in advancing new research on heart transplants, died Sept. 11 at Kingston Care of Sylvania. She was 81.

She suffered a cardiac event following years of multiple sclerosis, her daughter, Jennie McCartney said. Her mother didn’t let the disease limit her life as she continued to travel and live life to the fullest. 

“She was just a bright light. She lit up everybody’s life,” Mrs. McCartney-Newmark’s daughter said. 

While in nursing school, Mrs. McCartney-Newmark worked with a surgeon who was researching and experimenting with heart transplants. Following graduation from Mercy Hospital, she served as a surgical nurse. 

“She was always innately born to take care of things — from her animals to her baby dolls,” her daughter said. “She just always stayed a caregiver.”

The McComb, Ohio, native grew up on a farm, and primarily helped her parents with daily chores before she moved to Toledo to continue her education, her daughter said. She raised animals, earning several blue ribbons from county fairs. 

Later in her career, Mrs. McCartney-Newmark worked in the surgical purchasing arena, ordering specialty instruments for the doctors. She retired in 1999. 

“She was a nurse and she never lost the desire to help and to care,” her daughter said. 

She continued to volunteer medically for different studies, and donated her body to the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital. 

She was born to Lee and Helen Ewing on Feb. 3, 1937, and she graduated from McComb High School in 1955. 

When she was 22, she married David McCartney, and the couple lived in Lambertville, Mich. In 1977, the couple divorced, but remained friends. 

When she was in her 40s, Mrs. McCartney-Newmark met her true love, her daughter said. 

Mrs. McCartney-Newmark had car trouble one day and stopped at a gas station — one block from work. That’s where she met Abe Newmark. 

Mr. Newmark told Mrs. McCartney-Newmark’s friend he would marry her. And he did. 

The couple spent 17 years together, traveling the world and hosting fabulous parties, her daughter said. Mr. Newmark preceded his wife in death in 1995.

Mrs. McCartney-Newmark enjoyed playing the piano and singing, but she truly enjoyed people, her daughter said. She participated in community theater, along with the New Bedford Singers in Lambertville. 

Surviving are her sons, Michael, Jim, and Doug; daughters, Jennie, and Deanna; first husband, David McCartney; 10 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren

A celebration of her life will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday at the Elks Lodge #53, 3520 N. Holland-Sylvania Road. 

The family suggests tributes to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. 

Contact Allison Dunn at adunn@theblade.com, 419-724-6506, or on Twitter @AllisonDBlade.