Marion Mullen

Marion Mullen, age 88, of Wayne, passed away peacefully at home, with loving members of her family by her side, on Friday, December 11, 2020.

Born and raised in New York City, Marion was the fourth of five children born to Joseph and Ethel (nee Pritchard) Faust. She attended Sacred Heart Grammar School in New York City.

After high school graduation, Marion joined the telephone operator pool at AT&T and worked there until marriage and the duty and privilege of raising her own five children became her new calling.

Although they grew up on the same street, it wasn’t until she was a teenager that Marion started seeing a fine gentleman name Thomas Mullen. Tom had just returned from service in the U.S. Army. He was part of a social club called the Happy Boys and it was at one of their events that Marion and Tom really hit it off. Of course, this made Tom the happiest of the Happy Boys and, as time went on, they knew they were meant for each other. They exchanged their wedding promises before God, family and friends on Saturday, September 16, 1950 at Sacred Heart Church in New York City. Marion was just eighteen years old when she married.

As newlyweds, Marion and Tom’s first home together was an apartment on 60th Street between 9th and 10th Avenue. It was a humble abode with a common bathroom and a bathtub in the kitchen. Humble doesn’t matter though when you’re in love and many happy memories were made there. In 1958, with the family growing, they moved to 416 West 49th Street in an apartment building where Marion’s mom also lived. They stayed there for twenty years and might have stayed longer if the building didn’t collapse one night with one wall completely being destroyed giving a full view into countless apartments. It happened late at night and just Marion and her daughter Debbie were home at the time. Since this happened years before the age of cell phones, Marion’s son Kenny recalls getting a phone call at a local bar telling him to come home because the building collapsed. Thank God, not one person got hurt but it was certainly time to find a new place to live! They moved to 736 10th Ave and stayed there for nine years before moving across the river to Bergenfield, NJ. While living in Bergenfield, sadly, Marion’s beloved husband Tom passed away. In 1995, she moved to Wayne where she lived with her daughter Debbie’s family and son Kenny.

Marion embraced motherhood. To her, there was nothing more important than providing a warm, welcoming place for her family to call home. She was the finest of cooks and she always did her best to be at all the important events in her four sons and one daughter’s lives. Hockey was always a big thing in the Mullen family and she had her younger boys on skates before they could pronounce multisyllabic words. It seemed to pay off as two of her sons – Joey and Brian both enjoyed careers in professional hockey with one of them making it into the National Hockey League Hall of Fame.

In between caring for her kids, Marion worked a part-time job as an usherette at Broadhurst Theater on Broadway while living on 49th Street, and she and her mother Ethel turned their cooking skills into cold cash by working as cooks at Columbia University.

Next to her faith in God, nothing was more precious to Marion than the love and laughter of being with family. Playing games was a great way for everyone to enjoy time together and throughout her entire life games of rummy, poker and pinochle were never in short supply. Her children remember Marion and Tom having friends over every Saturday night to play cards – the room filled with smoke. Marion was also an avid bingo player playing at Sacred Heart Church when living in New York and at the Boys and Girls Club and Wayne PAL when living in New Jersey. Then of course, there were the games of bingo played at home where the stakes would sometimes get pretty high and a winner could walk away from the table with $100 in their pocket. When her own children were younger, she and Tom would rent a bungalow every summer in Rockaway, NY where they would all have a blast. While she and Tom didn’t travel a lot during their lives, one year, they especially enjoyed a trip to Edmonton in Alberta Canada to see the National Hockey League All-Star Game with her two sons competing against each.  

Marion was blessed with eleven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She actually lived with her youngest grandson Tom and helped to raise him while his parents went to work every day. Always the loving grandmother, Marion knitted for each of her grandchildren. She also loved it when her grandchildren would call her to find out how to make one of her recipes or just to chat about anything.

Marion will be remembered for her gentle, easy-going nature, her hard work, dedication and love to her family as well as countless friends she made along life’s path. If Marion considered you a friend, you were a true friend. She was selfless as a saint and would do anything for anyone in need. Her family gives thanks for her life and, while they will miss her dearly, they are thankful for the memories and grateful for her new life in a better place.

Marion was the beloved wife of Thomas Mullen, blessed in marriage for 39 years until his passing in 1989. She was the most loving mother of:  Kenneth Mullen of Wayne, Thomas Mullen of Roanoke, VA, Joseph and wife Linda Mullen of Cape Cod, MA, Debra Ann Mullen-Esposito and husband Al of Wayne, and Brian and wife Linda Mullen of Basking Ridge; adored grandmother of: Ryan and wife Stephanie, Joey and wife Ashley, Michael, Jared and wife Kendra, Patrick, Nicole and husband Mat, Jordan and husband Brandon, Chris, Erin, Bryce, and Tom; cherished great-grandmother of: Liam, Sawyer, Ellie, Jenson, and Max; and dear aunt of: John, Donna, and Michael. She was also predeceased by her four siblings: Raymond, Harold and Joseph Faust, and Jane Grasso.

Those planning an expression of sympathy in Marion’s name are asked to consider a contribution to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memorial Processing, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105-9959, or online at www.stjude.org.