Dr. Marion Ann Stewart PhD., LMSW ACSW

Psalm 23 was Dr. Marion Ann Stewart's favorite scripture, and it actually reflects the life she lived. Please note, to nearly everyone who knew and loved her, she was simply Anna. Very few called her Marion, and because this remembrance belongs to the people who loved her, we will call her what they always did. As the scripture references, Anna knew something about walking through valleys. She knew hardship, sacrifice and uncertainty. She was one-of-one and one of the strongest persons to walk this earth. No matter the valley, she kept walking, always figured out a way to make a way where there appeared to be none, and somehow, through it all, she knew how to keep her cup overflowing with laughter, generosity, faith and love. Anna was brilliant and curious, fiercely protective and deeply affectionate, strong yet extraordinarily tender. She was also wonderfully goofy. She possessed an infectious laugh and often began laughing at her own jokes before she ever reached the punchline. Perhaps most remarkable was that despite everything she endured, life never managed to take her joy away. Anna became a mother at 17. There were people who doubted whether she would finish high school, college, graduate school, or successfully raise her children. She answered those doubts with her life. After graduating from McDonogh 35 College Preparatory High School in 1975, she earned a bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of New Orleans, a Master of Social Work from Louisiana State University, and ultimately a doctoral degree in Health Administration while working and raising a large family. Long before those degrees, however, there were books. As a child, she found refuge in reading and could spend hours in the library. She later raised her children in a home filled with books because she understood education was more than achievement – it was freedom, possibility and preparation for life. Anna poured that philosophy into her seven children. She had survived the streets of New Orleans herself and understood what it would take for her children to survive them. She could be tough because she understood the world she was preparing them to face, but her discipline was accompanied by explanation, affection and love. She taught them to embrace their Blackness, always be themselves, love who you are and never try to conform to someone else’s perception of you just to be liked by them, she taught them to pursue education, protect one another, and never allow the world to divide them. A remarkable gift was how well she knew her children. Every birthday, she would take something as ordinary as a manila file envelope and turn it into a deeply personal birthday card, writing about the individual qualities she loved and admired in that particular child. Those cards captured one of her greatest gifts: she truly saw people. Her remarkable empathy served her throughout her career as a social worker, including much of her professional life at Belle Chasse Health Center and Grady Hospital. She devoted her life's work to helping people who were not always in a position to help themselves. And at home, she turned life into lessons. She didn't merely tell her children what to think; she taught them how to think. Her grandchildren received that same extraordinary love. She was a devoted grandmother who wanted them close, taught them academics at a very young age, encouraged them, protected them and poured affection into them. For Anna, loving a child meant preparing that child for life – the good and the bad. Anna also knew how to enjoy life. She loved books, music, plants, the color purple and especially orchids. She enjoyed sewing and crocheting. She liked to dance, loved Christmas, loved giving gifts, and absolutely loved to bake. Her cakes, pies, cookies, cupcakes and pastries became expressions of love shared with family, neighbors, friends and even strangers. Eventually, people would line up outside Baldwin & Co. and travel across the city for her cupcakes and pastries. And then there was basketball. She was a fanatic. She knew players, statistics and strategy. Georgetown basketball held a special place in her heart, as did Coach John Thompson and Allen Iverson. She enjoyed sports of all kinds, but some of her greatest joy came from attending games in person – especially watching her sons compete. Whatever her children were doing, she was their number one fan. Her lifelong love of elephants now seems especially fitting. She was rarely interested in fancy jewelry, but an elephant necklace, ring or keepsake was seldom far away. Strength. Memory. Endurance. Protection. Devotion to family. Perhaps she loved elephants because she recognized something of herself in them. Perhaps her love of elephants was never accidental. There was something of the elephant in the way she moved through life: strong, deeply intelligent, fiercely protective, and devoted to family. She carried enormous weight – raising children, pursuing her education, serving others, enduring hardship – and somehow, she kept moving forward even when her body and circumstances gave her every reason to stop. And like the elephants she loved, she seemed never to forget: her memory was impeccable, she didn’t forget names, and the lessons life had taught her, the people who had shown her kindness, and certainly not the people she loved. She carried her family with her everywhere – not as a burden, but as her purpose. Dr. Marion Ann “Anna” Stewart departed this life on Thursday, August 27, 2026, at the age of 68. She was the beloved daughter of Hazel Sorina and the late Joseph Stewart Jr. She was the devoted mother of Illumani Marianne Kingyata Johnson; Terrence Johnson (Iesha); Dernell Johnson; Jarmond Johnson; Chad Johnson; Asani Woods; and the late Alonzo Frazier Stewart. She was the loving grandmother of Siera Moore, Laiyla Johnson, Alexis Johnson, Rashaud Johnson, Isaiah Woods, Toussaint Johnson and Sukari Johnson, and the late Angel Johnson and Jaylen Johnson. She was the sister of Joseph Stewart III, Jacqueline Gordon (Loren), Elizabeth Thomas Winston and Joyce Warren (Robert). She was preceded in death by her beloved son, Alonzo Frazier Stewart; granddaughter, Angel Johnson; grandson, Jaylen Johnson; father, Joseph Stewart Jr.; brother, Joseph Stewart III; stepfather, Wesley Sorina; nephew, Chaka Stewart; and loving aunt, Octavia Hill. She also leaves to cherish her memory her nieces, TaKeisha Sylvester, Tiffany Stewart, Neliska Jackson Dubuclet and Jalissa Jackson; and nephews, Joseph Stewart, Demond Stewart, Lemond Stewart, Abdul DeGrange, Joshua Stewart, Nathan D. Thomas Jr. and Jonas Nash, along with the memory of her late nephew, Chaka Stewart; and a host of extended family, friends, colleagues and people whose lives were made better because she was part of them. Anna leaves behind more than memories. She leaves evidence that where you begin does not determine where you finish; that education can change the trajectory of generations; that strength does not require hardness; that intelligence is most beautiful when accompanied by empathy; and that hardship does not have to steal your joy. Her favorite scripture promised that “goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Goodness and mercy did follow her. But perhaps her greatest legacy is that she left so much of both behind for the rest of us. Goodness and mercy remains in the children she raised, the grandchildren she taught, the people she helped, the books she inspired others to read, the food she shared, the games she cheered, the lessons she taught, and the laughter her family will hear in their memories for the rest of their lives. Her life was her lesson. Her family is her legacy. And her love remains.