Maria S. Carrion Murray

Maria S. Carrion Murray 71 of St. Petersburg passed away August 22, 2014. Maria, whose maiden name is Maria Soccorro Carrion Nerris was born on May 3, 1943 to the parents of Juana Neris and Bienvienido Carrion in Caguas, Puerto Rico. She was the eighth child of thirteen siblings including 8 brothers and 4 sisters. She was affectionately known as "Sottie" among the family. Her middle name Soccorro actually means" helper", and this fit her personality perfectly because she was always trying to help someone. She even thought of herself sometimes as a nun or a type of "Mother Theresa." As a middle child she helped raise her younger 7 brothers and sisters. The family was Catholic, and Maria was raised Catholic and attended the Catholic Church. She attended public schools in Borinquen, her hometown area, and then High School in Caguas, where she graduated in 1960. Then she went on to college at the University of Puerto Rico. She thought of becoming a doctor and had the aptitude to do it, but she changed her mind and switched to Teaching and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Teaching in 1964. During the time that she was finishing college and beginning to teach school, she lived with her older sister Mary for a while who was very supportive of her as she developed her career. Maria taught children who were mentally handicapped, again showing her interest in helping those who were needful. Maria desired to venture out after a while and in 1968 she traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to visit her oldest brother, Dennis. She decided to stay in Ohio and moved to Dayton, Ohio and found a job in the local city government. She enjoyed the snow in her first winter there, and continued to wear her mini-skirts as in Puerto Rico despite the low temperatures. That changed after she got her first cold. There she met her first husband, Dan Hobbs, whom she would remain married to for 14 years. During that time Maria moved up the ladder and landed a job with the Mayor's Office during the administration of Carl Stokes, the first black Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. She won awards for her service with the Mayor. Later she and Dan moved to Rockville, MD in order for Dan to take a job there as City Manager around 1978. Maria landed a job in the federal government with the Internal Revenue Service. Around 1981 she and Dan divorced unfortunately, and no children were born of the marriage. Moving to Washington, DC in the up and coming southwest neighborhood, Maria took a job with the US Department of Education and was able to walk to work. No more long commutes. She moved up to a managerial position in the Contract Compliance Division of the EEO Office. Many times she would travel to cities and regions alone around the country to inspect corporate facilities for EEO guidelines compliance. She even went down in coal mines in West Virginia in remote towns to enforce the federal EEO guidelines, which was not an easy task for a single woman by herself. But always the fighter, she came through with no problem. She was well respected in her professional capacity as Manager of the Contract Compliance Division. In 1984 Maria and Steve Murray met and immediately fell for each other. After a tug of war to get Steve to settle down, in 1986 the couple started going back to church at Full Gospel AME Zion Church in Temple Hills, MD where Maria gave her life to Jesus Christ in August, 1986. Later with Maria leading the way Steve gave his life to Jesus Christ in February, 1987. They joined the church and got active, and then decided to get married. However, they took a marriage enrichment course to get it right this second time around. The couple got married on June 16, 1988. Soon they bought their first house together. Afterwards Maria resigned her job at the US Department of Education, and came to help Steven in his law practice. She ended a long career in government. The couple worked together as Maria ran the office and chased the thieves away, while Steve went to court or did real estate closings. We were always together. Later at the urging of the Pastor, we closed their law office and went to work full time as a team in ministry at Full Gospel AME Zion Church from 1991 to 2002. The full time ministry was a terrific experience and a time to grow closer to God and really serve Him. It was amazing because we knew we could not do the things we did without God's help. Maria handled the Ministry of Kindness, which provided financial assistance and counseling to needy families and individuals, in addition to many other responsibilities, while Steve served as special advisor to the Pastor. The Lord even spoke to Maria in an audible voice and told her "take care of my people and I will take care of you." This only made her all the more committed to helping people. After 11 years in ministry the couple left and re-opened Steve's private law office again and did real estate settlements. In 2004 they decided to take an early retirement, so we closed the law office for good, and ventured into doing real estate investing. In 2000 Maria discovered she had breast cancer, and did a right mastectomy and reconstruction, and then she did the same procedure for the left side in 2004. Five years later there was no detectable trace of cancer so she went on with her life. Traveling was something Maria liked to do, so she got Steven to try something new. They went to the Caribbean islands a lot, including Puerto Rico, Maria's home, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, England, Ghana, Hawaii, and other places. It turned out though that their favorite place to go was Puerto Rico, so in 2003 they bought a house in Luquillo, Puerto Rico near the beach, sold their house in Maryland, and shipped their furniture to Puerto Rico. So from then on it was 6 months in PR and 6 months in Maryland during the year. Later, the cold weather in Maryland convinced the couple to move to St. Petersburg, Florida in 2007. They continued their real estate investing with hands on involvement in renovating an old 1924 2 bed room bungalow. Maria threw herself into the project pulling down old plaster in ceilings and walls and getting covered with white chalky powder. She enjoyed it nevertheless. Slowly the couple met new friends and learned their way around St. Pete. Finally, they came to Positive Impact Ministries in August 2013 and got involved. In 2011 Maria experienced a problem with her voice and unexplained weight loss and began checking with doctors to see what was wrong. It never occurred to us that a resurgence of the cancer was the issue. Not until a year later was it determined that it was breast cancer that had returned and it metastasized to other parts of the body. After taking a whole year of chemotherapy in 2013 the cancer was under arrest. But the side effects of chemotherapy led to a stroke in January 2014. She came home and was doing rehabilitation and was doing well, and took medicine for avoiding another stroke. But then on March 1, 2014 she fell at night and hit her head and was rushed to the hospital and had surgery to remove pressure on the brain from blood seepage. The miracle was that she woke up and smiled at Steven after a 6 week coma, and tried to talk. But she needed breathing support from then on, and things only worsened for the next 5 months. On August 22, 2014 after a long hard fought battle Maria finally went home to the Lord to enter into her rest and reward. Maria had a wonderful life when you look back on it. She was loved, she had a good career, she enjoyed life, she enjoyed people, and she loved God. Maria will be terribly missed. But she cannot be denied her choice to go home to the Lord, and enter into that place of rest with "fullness of joy" and "pleasures for evermore" that the Lord has in store for all of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. She is survived by her husband, Steve, her sisters, Rosa Feliciano, Carmin Carrion, and Mary Fraticelli, and her brothers, Willie Carrion and Hector Carrion, and many nieces and nephews, and sisters-in law and brothers-in-law. We can say to Maria well done my faithful servant. We hope to join you soon. Funeral services will be 12 noon Saturday, August 30, 2014 at Positive Impact Church, 2750 34th Street South, St. Petersburg. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery, Clearwater. Family will receive friends at the church on Saturday from 11:30AM thru service time. David C. Gross Funeral Homes, Central Avenue Chapel in St. Petersburg is serving the family. Service Information