Marian Adella

Healy

Marian Adella Healy (1926-2026)

She was called Stone Lake Grandma by all who knew her. Marian Adella Healy (born Marian Adella Heffner) made Stone Lake in Shipshewana, Indiana her home in 1997, and in doing so she created a familial homing beacon for generations of Healys. Every Fourth of July we would watch fireworks over the lake and tell stories around the fire, basking in her adoration and belief in each of our unique abilities.

Looking back, she had an incredible life. She was born on April 29th 1926 in Michigan City, Indiana to Mabel & Ellis Heffner, homesteaders known for raising peacocks and other birds. During WWII she was a typist at a munitions factory, and then became a bookkeeper which continued to be her profession for a decade. For a time, she entertained audiences on Lake Michigan cruise ships as an accordionist. She met the love of her life, Richard Paul Healy, at a bowling alley. They married and raised five children, Bill, Janet, Bob, Joanne and Jim in Mishawaka, Indiana. They adopted a sixth child, Diana, when Marian’s brother, Thomas Grant Heffner, died in a motorcycle accident in 1953. In their thirty eight years of marriage, Richard and Marian became rental property owners, wholly loved their children, and avidly enjoyed square dancing. They were members of the Jolly Squares Square Dancing Club. In the evenings, when their children were young, the Healys would have a family concert with Marian playing her accordion. When Richard died of a heart attack in 1995, Marian moved into their Stone Lake property. There, she became a member of the Stone Lake Conservation Club, and participated in the annual pontoon flotilla with increasing flair. She was known to gather on kayaks in the middle of the lake with her friends to chat, a group that was affectionately named the Stone Lake Yakkers. A big believer in the arts, she volunteered at the South Bend Museum of Art for ten years. Marian lived to be a hundred years old, and in her long life she lost many, including her son, Robert Allen Healy, and grandson, Mathew Arron Healy. Despite these losses, she remained joyous and brazenly optimistic until her death on November 10, 2026.

She is survived by her four children (Bill, Janet, Joanne, and Jim), eight grandchildren (Angel, Tom, Dan, Amber, Sharon, Jordan, Sidne, and Lisa), and seven great-grandchildren (Marshall, Dylanne, Carter, Wyatt, Parker, Lilly and Sebastian). She was a once-in-a-lifetime person and she will be missed by us all. 

The family will receive friends on Monday, November 23, 2026 from 11:00 AM until 12:00 PM, and the funeral service will immediately follow at 12:00 Noon, all at Chapel Hill Funeral Home, Osceola, IN. She will be laid to rest immediately following the funeral at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens, Garden of Devotion, Osceola, IN.