Marialice Searcy

Marialice (Wiedel) Searcy passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on January 17th, 2023.

Marialice, was born on March 10th, 1926 to Paul and Evelyn Wiedel in Hebron, Nebraska. Her early years were spent living on family farms with various relatives after her mother died in childbirth with her. During the first ten years of her life, she was in charge of feeding the chickens, rounding up the cattle on her horse, and other daily farm chores. At the age of ten, when drought forced them from the farm, she moved with her father and stepmother, Florence McGraw, to Gilead, Nebraska where they operated a filling station and lived in the small, attached apartment with no plumbing. While living in Gilead they adopted a baby boy, Richard (Dick), Marialice’s only sibling, whom she cared for while her parents worked. The family was split up when her parents divorced a few years after Dick’s adoption. Marialice stayed with relatives until she attended Notre Dame Convent High School in St. Louis. After high school she lived in Kansas City with her father, and at 18 she began her first job working at Hallmark Cards in the art department, where she remained for over 12 years.

She met the love of her life, Glenn Elston Searcy, at the corner drugstore soda fountain where they both caught the 24th St. streetcar on their way to work. Marialice and Glenn were married in 1948 at St. Michael’s Church. They purchased their first home at 22nd and Quincy and began their family. In 1960, the family moved to the Brookside area at 61st and Walnut where she lived most of her life.

Marialice was always generous with her time, love, and energy. She worked in numerous volunteer settings, including with the Children’s Place, the Teen Suicide Hotline, Missouri Mental Health, St. James’ Soup Kitchen, Bishop Hogan High School, and as an Art Docent (Picture Lady) for Border Star and St. Peter’s Elementary Schools and was involved with various church service committees. While raising six children of her own, she devoted several years to fostering newborn babies awaiting adoption through Catholic Charities, caring for 33 babies throughout that time.

In her later years while reflecting upon her life, she conveyed that living through the Great Depression was never an experience she undervalued. It was a profound life experience that brought her powerful insight, instilling in her a great understanding of what really mattered in life.

She was preceded in death by her loving husband of 41 years, Glenn, in 1989; her newborn daughter, Loretta in 1957, and her brother Richard Wiedel in 2015. She is survived by her six children: Stephen, Glenda Kimmerly (Denis), Lee Anne Voorhees, Andrea (Chad) Barrow, Paul, and Dann (Sally), daughter-in-law Carol Searcy, ten grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren.

Services will be held on Friday, February 10 at Visitation Church, 5141 Main Street with visitation, rosary, and eulogy from 10 to 11:00 am. Memorial Mass at 11:00 will be followed by a reception at Tighe Hall.

In the spirit of her incredible example of giving and values in life, memorial contributions may be made to the charity of your choice.