Obituary of Mark Paul “Marci Payne” Paleologo

Born as Mark Paul Paleologo, later in life known to friends and close family as Marci Payne, age 58, of Ventnor City, NJ died Monday, September 3, 2018 peacefully at home. Marci was born August 3, 1960 in Newark, NJ to Salvatore and Maria (Lisocki) Paleologo and is survived by loving daughters Karena Paleologo and Maria Paleologo.

Having spent most of her life in Morris County, growing up in Montville and living for many years in Boonton, Marci recently moved down to Ventnor City to carve out a new space for herself near the ocean where she could spend her time writing and creating. Although she spent many years as a plumber, Marci was always a writer at heart. For many years her writing took the form of songs through her role as the singer Evil Dick in the band The Congregation. More recently, her poetry had been featured in several anthologies and she had been active in the local beat poetry community. In 2017 she was named State of New Jersey Beat Poet Laureate by the National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc., based in Connecticut. She also wrote short stories and novels and did some freelance writing for a few online publications. In her down time, she could generally be found with a newspaper (or more recently, Facebook), a cigarette, and a glass of bourbon, staying up to date on current news and politics, and making her opinions known. Relationships were a struggle throughout her life, but she was fiercely loyal and loved people with a rare intensity. It is a comfort to those who loved her to know that she ultimately achieved the peace and contentment in her life that she wanted and deserved.