Marion Elizabeth Pelly Moriarty, lifelong resident of Seattle and The Country Club on Restoration Point, Bainbridge Island, died April 26, 2019, one day before her 88th birthday.

Born April 27, 1931 in Seattle General Hospital, Marion was the daughter of U. S. Congressman Thomas Minor Pelly and Mary Virginia Taylor Pelly. She attended The Helen Bush School, Mount Vernon Seminary in Washington, D.C. and Scripps College. She worked after college in her father’s congressional office in Washington, D. C., where she met and then later married Charles Patrick Moriarty Jr. (“Chuck”) in 1964. Marion and Chuck raised their four children on Bainbridge Island in The Country Club on Restoration Point, settled in 1890 by Marion’s grandfather, Bernard Pelly. Marion loved all the simple things and wild things found on that point; flowers, birds, dogs, Puget Sound and Nescafé. She lived there year-round until the last week of her life.

With her eye for color and form, Marion began a Spanish pottery import business in 1984, collecting and traveling to the far ends of Spain. In the late 1980’s she supported and advocated for the newly formed South Bainbridge Community Association to help mitigate rampant development. After Chuck’s death in 1999, she established The Charles Moriarty Foundation, educating and supporting people living with cancer. The Fund merged with the Cancer Lifeline Patient Assistance Fund in 2009.

Mom, Auntie, Grandmother and sister; Marion’s door was always open to friends and family, old and young from around the world. She hosted Christmas Eve carols at her home for forty-nine years and recently had been a contributor to the Country Club Historical committee. A force like no other, irreplaceable and loved, we will miss her wry wit, impish grin and the perpetual twinkle in her eye.

She leaves behind her family: Mark Moriarty and his children Michael P. Moriarty, Maxwell R. Moriarty, Marshall T. Moriarty, Rusty D. Herbert and Peighton Leigh Moriarty; Marion Taylor Moriarty and her children Marion Ingman and Otto Ingman; Ginger D. Moriarty and Charles Minor Moriarty besides many nieces and nephews, her beloved golden doodle Willow and the elusive cat, Crumpet. She is predeceased by her brother, Thomas Minor Pelly. A memorial service will be June 8th 1:00pm at St Barnabus Episcopal Church on Bainbridge Island. Reception at the family home immediately following. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to Cancer Lifeline or Kitsap Humane Society, Arrangements are with Cook’s Family Funeral Home, 163 Wyatt Way NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110