Marie Sparks

Marie Sparks, Celebration of a Life Well Lived

Dec 18, 1936 - July 10, 2026

Though she was born on a bleak winter day during the Great Depression, Marie always greeted life with a celebratory spirit, ready to see beauty everywhere and in everyone.

From her parents, Frank S. Nanna of Bari, Italy, and Jennie Castello of Chicago, Illinois, Marie learned to celebrate both her Italian heritage and her American upbringing. Growing up with her siblings, Paul, Frank Jr., Anita, and Tony, in North Lake, Illinois, she learned to value her close family ties, even when the family eventually became spread out geographically, with Marie settling down in California with her parents after graduating from high school in Illinois.

Although Marie was already engaged when she met Jack Sparks at Lockheed, where she worked as his typist, she knew true love when she found it. After a heady three-month courtship, the two married and settled down in Cupertino, where they bought a new house and Marie began building a beautiful home for her husband and the daughters they brought into the world in quick succession: Elizabeth (Citta), Kathryn, Heather (Schaadt), Julie, and the “bonus daughter” adopted later, Lynn (Krumeich).

Marie embraced her role as wife, mother, and homemaker with gusto. She became very active in her children’s education and extracurricular activities, volunteering with the PTA and chaperoning their field trips. She also encouraged them and listened patiently when they were learning to read and later stepped up to type their essays when they hit a time crunch. Their teenage years found her cheering at parades when they marched by in the band, and she attended every play and recital they ever performed in, carefully recording everything on film for the family archive.

The creativity and zest she employed to make her children’s birthdays and seasonal parties fun turned her house into a magnet for the neighborhood, particularly her version of “Let’s Make a Deal” for a birthday party game and “pin the heart on the skeleton” for Halloween parties, to say nothing of the homemade costumes she whipped up on her sewing machine. Her piano playing and lovely soprano voice also added a celebratory note, particularly during the holidays, when she made and decorated packets of Christmas carols so everyone could keep up. And although cooking wasn’t her favorite activity, the pumpkin pies and homemade cannoli she made for the holidays were legendary.

In life’s darker moments, though, Marie proved to be both stalwart and nurturing. Most notably, when Kathy contracted a severe case of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis as a small child, Marie supported her through her many treatments and therapies, leaning on her strong Catholic faith to sustain her and demonstrating the dedication to her children’s welfare that we could always count on. “Count your blessings,” she would always remind us, and she always counted her own.

Marie’s love of beauty led her to take up oil painting and produce a wide array of landscapes, still lifes, and reinterpretations of classics that graced her own home and those of family and friends. When she discovered the art of quilting, that became her passion, leading to her active participation in the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles and two quilting clubs. She even formed her own quilting company, Golden Thimble Enterprises, and taught quilting classes, a role in which she shone. The wealth of beautiful quilts Marie produced will be cherished for generations to come.

Marie also reveled in seeing the world with Jack, beginning with a nearly two-year sojourn in Dunoon, Scotland, early in their marriage, and spanning journeys through the US and Europe. Marie particularly enjoyed seeing Strasbourg (with its “Sound of Music” views), Amsterdam’s tulip fields, Paris, Rome, Sissinghurst Castle in England, and the Hume Castle near the Firth of Forth, Scotland, where her husband’s ancestors once lived. She also enjoyed visiting her extended family on the East Coast and Jack’s extended family in the South. Marie and Jack also enjoyed taking a memoir-writing class where they both produced thoughtful and engaging stories to reflect on their key life experiences, including two stories depicting their epic first date in glamorous mid-century San Francisco, each story told from their different points of view.

Marie’s most joyful times probably began when the grandchildren started to arrive: Jennifer Schaadt, Kellie Piccolotti, Jordan Bishop, and Brendt Citta. Marie began making teddy bears, baby blankets, baby quilts, and clothing for these adored children, and she cherished their every stage of growth, from infancy through their many milestones, up to the recent marriage of her youngest grandson, Brendt, to his lovely bride, Kelsey (McLaughlin) Citta.

Although Marie faced some harrowing tragedies, losing both daughters Elizabeth and Kathy to cancer, she found strength from her remaining family, especially Jack, the love of her life and her solid rock of support. When she lost Jack, too, almost six years ago, she found a way to survive her deep grief and regain some sense of her celebratory spirit, though she missed him every day and looked forward to the reunion with her beloved Jack that she has now found.

Those of us who were so fortunate to have Marie in our lives will try to follow her example, celebrating not just the holidays and high points of life but also the ordinary beauties: from the sunrise coming up over the neighbor’s roof to the sound of rain drumming on the skylight to the everyday miracle of anyone’s baby going by in a stroller. Even if we won’t have Marie with us now to point them out, may we be as open to appreciating these everyday gifts as she always was.