Marie Alice Nuetzel

STOW - Marie Alice Nuetzel, 89, died March 18, 2025.

Marie was born on June 24, 1935, to Carl and Alice Daiber in Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated from West Tech High School with her sister by heart, "Little" Marie, in 1953. After graduation, she worked as a secretary for Hankins Container Company until she met the love of her life, Dana. Dana and Marie met at a church picnic in the spring of 1958. After a whirlwind courtship, they married that same year on November 22. They lived in Cleveland and Akron, (where they welcomed the birth of their son, Glen), Buffalo, New York, (where their daughter, Kristen was born) and then moved to Solon where they lived and raised their children for approximately twenty years before moving to Stow in the early 2000s.

Marie was a true partner to Dana in both life and at the bridge table. Bridge was their favorite pastime, and both earned the highest American Contract Bridge League rank of Life Master. "Lively" discussions were held after returning home from matches and their ability to recall and debate the details of every hand played was incredible to listen to and witness. Besides bridge, Marie and Dana enjoyed traveling and experiencing the world together. They took annual family vacations to Myrtle Beach, traveled all over the U.S. to play in bridge tournaments, cruised to Caribbean islands, Alaska, and along the Rhine, and visited England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Belgium, Austria, and Australia. They celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary with close friends and family a few months before Dana passed away on February 16, 2009.

In addition to being a devoted and supportive wife to Dana, Marie was a loving, caring, and enormously proud mother to her two children and her four grandchildren, (Matthew, Nicole, Daniel, and Megan). She loved nothing more than spending time together, especially at the holidays and precious memories were made at these gatherings. There was the year she was obsessed with finding and purchasing a "Bah Humbug" mug and called every Hallmark store in the greater northeast Ohio area, the year of the "murdered" pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, (the killers shall remain nameless, but they know who they are), card games such as poker and euchre, board games, dice games, and vigorous rounds of a gift exchange and stealing game known in the immediate and extended family as "7/11." Remembering these joyful moments filled with delicious food and laughter will sustain us when we grieve the absence of her physical presence in the future.

After her short career as a secretary, Marie was a full-time homemaker who worked to keep her house immaculate at all times. Her self-imposed standards were high and after stating to any given visitor that the house was "a wreck," she would usually be told in return that it was actually the cleanest and neatest home that person had ever been in. As well as keeping the home "just so," Marie was an excellent cook. While living in Solon, she and other women in the neighborhood founded a "gourmet" cooking club. Several beloved family dishes stemmed from the recipes taste tested by this group at their monthly dinners. Marie’s baking skills were also unmatched. Family favorites include a chocolate cake with caramel icing, ("Aunt Sophie’s"), a frozen pumpkin ice cream pie ("John’s Flaming Hearth’s" from a restaurant in NY), Oreo cookie dessert, and a butter cookie with the unexpected ingredient of Rice Krispies ("Mary Jane’s Cookies"), which, with our apologies to Mary Jane, will henceforth be renamed ("Marie’s Cookies" in her honor). Dozens of cookies of every variety were typically made for weeks on end during the holidays and then shared on beautiful trays with friends and family alike. In recent years and as her health declined, Marie wasn’t able to bake to the same extent as she did in her younger years which was a fact that she lamented frequently. And yet, because it was so important to her, she still managed to make both pizzelles and pretzel bark, (with assistance from her friend Mary), as recently as this past Christmas.

Another gift Marie shared with her friends and family over the years was the fruits of her varied creative hobbies. She made clothing (starting with "stretch and sew" outfits in the 1970s), embroidered and cross stitched samplers, (adorning almost every wall of her home and gifted to family and friends for marriages and births), knitted scarves, dishcloths, and Christmas stockings, made layered button and glass jewelry, stitched and sewed Christmas ornaments, and produced gorgeous quilted items including comforters, wall hangings, purses, placemats, and bowl cozies, (about 100 of these were made and given to friends and family during the Covid pandemic). Last but certainly not least, Marie thoroughly took pride and delighted in making her own greeting cards on the computer. All of these special items will be treasured and serve as lasting reminders of her talents and her generous nature.

An active member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Akron, Marie found great comfort in her faith throughout her lifetime. We know that she is now at peace in the arms of her Savior and that she and those who went before her are having a most glorious reunion in heaven. We expect her to watch over us and send signs of her presence and have already seen a cardinal, a rainbow, and mourning doves.

As much as Marie loved her family, her home and hobbies, and her church, we would be remiss in not mentioning how very much she loved and valued her countless friends. She befriended classmates, Dana’s business associates and their wives, neighbors on every street of every city in which she lived, fellow members of the churches she attended, and the mothers and fathers of her children’s friends. She was a longtime member of the Cuyahoga Fall’s Women’s Club and absolutely lived for her bridge games every Monday and Wednesday. Neither rain nor snow nor the amount of pain she was experiencing would prevent her from attending if she had anything to say about it. She was well renowned for her sense of humor and sharp wit as well as her diplomacy and ability to smooth over any situation. It’s a great honor to the family that the women of this club voted to cancel one of their standing weekly games in order to be able to attend Marie’s celebration of life service.

After Dana passed, Marie found a special kinship with a group of other widows that was affectionally known as the "W.I.N.O.S." . . . Widows in Need of Something where the "something" was a fill-in-the blank space for whatever was needed at the time, be it sisterhood, shopping, sunshine, solstice, and yes, sometimes a good Manhattan or a glass of Chardonnay. This close-knit circle of friends took amazing trips together, hosted parties for Halloween, Christmas, and St. Patrick’s Day, gathered for meals just because and meals to celebrate birthdays, and of course, played a great deal of bridge games.

Sharp mentally until the very end, Marie fought her many physical health challenges with dignity, strength, and grit. Although she’ll be deeply missed by all of the people whose lives she touched during her 89 years on this earth, it brings comfort to everyone that the battles and suffering are over. To know Marie was to love her and to be loved fiercely by her. Our loss is surely heaven’s gain.

Preceded in death by her husband, Dana Nuetzel; brother, Fred Daiber and his wife, Lillian; sister, Dorothy (Daiber) Poulsen and her husband, Victor; nieces, Irene (Poulsen) Branscum and her husband, Gilbert, Carol (Daiber) Bruder, and Susan (Daiber) Fisk, she is survived by her children, Glen (Lori) Nuetzel and Kristen (Fred) Krueckeberg; grandchildren, Nicole and Megan Nuetzel, Matthew and Daniel Krueckeberg; sister, Marie Witt; nieces, Marilyn (Daiber) Zacharyasz, Bonnie (Daiber) Shaw, and Chris (Daiber) Pohly, as well as great and great-great nieces and nephews too numerous to list.

Pastor David Brown will conduct a celebration of life service at 11 AM, on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at Trinity United Church of Christ, 915 North Main Street, Akron, OH 44310.

Friends may call from 4 to 7 PM, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at Redmon Funeral Home, 3633 Darrow Road, Stow 44224.

Should friends desire, memorials may be made to Southern Care Hospice Services , 2291 West Fourth Street, Mansfield, OH 44906, or Trinity United Church of Christ , 915 North Main Street, Akron, OH 44310.