Marcia Ryan Obituary

Marcia Ryan, 75, passed away peacefully at her home in Napa, CA surrounded by her loved ones on July 3, 2025 after battling sarcoidosis of the lungs for several years. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1950 to J. Raymond and Verna Nadine Peterson, Marcia had many fond memories of her childhood - even if she came to greatly prefer winters in California to those she experienced in her youth growing up in Minnesota. When she was 10, her family moved to a suburb of St. Paul. She delighted in noting (years later) how her new home was located on West Ryan Ave, that Ryan Realtors brokered the purchase, and that the pastor of the nearby Catholic parish was a Msgr. Ryan. In retrospect, these details may have been obvious foreshadowing of her marriage to Anthony Ryan, a fellow Minnesotan, in 1976.

In late 1977, two weeks after the birth of their first child, Marcia and Tony hooked up a trailer to their old pickup truck and made a memorable, epic nine-day journey out to California. There they would raise their family - which would come to include three more children - living in several different places in the Bay Area before finally moving to Napa in 1988. Marcia was very welcoming to the steady stream of classmates and neighborhood kids that her children had over to the house and was extraordinarily patient with the semi-organized chaos that her children and their friends frequently got up to. A talented artist, who majored in Art at the University of Minnesota, Marcia managed to find respites amid the hubbub of family life to occasionally do freelance work on book covers and catalogs. After several of her children entered college, she began teaching Art at Trinity Grammar & Prep and would continue doing so for over a decade. She also taught piano lessons for many years to numerous children. Marcia took great joy in entertaining guests, in enthusiastically cheering on the Warriors and the Giants, in playing countless games of Uno with her children and grandchildren, and in tirelessly witnessing to the inherent dignity of the human person from conception to natural death.

Marcia is survived by Tony, her cherished husband of nearly fifty years; her beloved and loyal big brother, Darrell Peterson of Elk River, MN; her immensely grateful children, Vince (Abby) Ryan of Nashville, TN, Ann-Marie (Pawel) Cetlinska of San Francisco, CA, Paul (Annie) Ryan of Vallejo, CA, and Sean (Mary Kate) Ryan of Napa, CA; ten boisterous grandchildren, and many beloved extended family members and friends. A Rosary prayer service will be at St. Joan of Arc Church in Yountville, on Tuesday, July 15th, at 7:00pm and the funeral Mass will take place at St. Helena Catholic Church on Wednesday, July 16th, at 10:30am. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory can be made to the Napa Women's Center, 935 Trancas Street, Suite 4B, Napa, CA 94558.