Marcella M. Gurnsey

Marcella (Marcy) Marie Gurnsey, age 69, of Chillicothe, passed away on Saturday, September 2, 2023 at OSF St. Francis Medical Center. She was born on January 16, 1954, in Fort Leonard Wood, MO to the late Donald J. and Ida M. (Wrabel) Livingston.  She married, the love of her life, James B. Gurnsey in January of 1987 in Peoria, IL.  He preceded her in death in 2015.

Surviving are her children, Fawn Briggerman of Chillicothe, IL, Renee Crew of Colorado Springs, CO, Angel (Richard) Smith of Dunlap, IL, and Jim (Nicole) Gurnsey of Colorado Springs, CO; 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren; sister Becky (Keith) Patterson of Peoria, IL; brother, Michael J. Livingston of East Peoria; and many nieces and nephews. There was nothing more important to her than family and her dogs Zane, Chica, and Tito.

Marcy and Jim settled with their family in Chillicothe living on the Illinois River.  She worked at OSF for over 15 years, and graduated with a degree in computer science after which she worked for Mediacom until she retired in 2016.  She loved animals and worked in the pet department at Geiger’s True Value during retirement caring for the animals she so dearly loved.  Her favorite coworker was CoCo the bird.

She loved her many hobbies including reading, writing, crafting, sewing, and crocheting, and was a member of the Miniature Dollhouse Club. Her love for her crafting, quilting, and knitting is apparent by the many boxes of craft supplies and bins of more yarn than a yarn store. She had plans for all of it…I assure you.

Thanksgiving and Christmas were her favorite holidays, and she cherished the times cooking and baking with her children and grandchildren.  Family would come from near and far to join these joyous festivities, whether that be assisting in the baking or preparing the many different meals.  Our favorite memories are spending time together making and decorating great Grandma Ida’s traditional homemade Christmas cookies. She would start them after Thanksgiving, having many cookie frosting parties with family and friends and they would be finished (mostly) on Christmas Eve. You may be thinking “That’s a long time for some Christmas cookies!” and you’d be correct.  Every part of the cookie making process is filled with love from Marcy and the entire family. She taught us all how to make a proper holiday meal, the most notable is the 12 pumpkin pies that were made EVERY Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will continue to keep her memory alive with the many recipes of Grandma Marcy’s Kitchen. To note a few of the favorites: spaghetti, lasagna, chili, chicken and dumplings, yellow rice/chicken, goulash, beef stroganoff, and porcupine meatballs.

Services will be held on Friday, September 8, 2023 at 2pm at Weber-Hurd Funeral Home in Chillicothe. Visitation will be 12-2pm and burial will immediately follow at the Chillicothe City Cemetery.  Because of her soft spot for animals, memorials may be made to the A.R.K Humane Society in Lacon, IL.