Mary grew up in North Tarrytown. As a teenager, she worked at the Fiorito house with her mother, and later on the Woodle estate on Riverview Road. During World War II, she worked at the Dell Mabry Field in Tallahassee, Florida, as the operation specialist and  had responsibility for getting the young flyers their paperwork and the weather.

She moved to the Irvington Half Moon apartments when they opened in 1955. It was built for people returning from WWII. She had two children at the time and since she was more on her own because of her husband’s travels as a merchant marine, she decided to move north and get near her family. 

Half Moon didn’t have landscaping or anything at that point, so her children played in the dirt. It was a place for children to grow up without having any fear. It was like a family, always telling stories about their children. It was a nice, young, growing community.

The children first went to Immaculate Conception Church with the nuns and later to the public schools. And then the church burned down, and she was approached to have some kind of a function, so she said, “How about a card party?”  So she had all the children making big cards for the church leaders.  She became very involved in the community. She helped the Girl Scouts and the Brownies. She was a bus lady for the school, and she helped in the kindergarten. She helped in the cafeteria with little children who were throwing their food away.  Dows Lane teacher and track coach Mr. Oley helped her. He was a great person and he encouraged her son Doug to run, which he did through college. For track meets,  she cut up oranges and tried to encourage mothers to come and cheer. She also made costumes for Mr. Penta’s shows, which included her daughter Mary Jo. She was a jack of all trades. She drove for anybody needing a ride. When the nuns needed a volunteer to drive up to Peekskill,  she said, “I’m available.” 

They belonged to the boat club. Frank Rugo was commodore. Other members included the Grogans, the Kemps, the Pellegrinos, and the Kramers. 

She had memories of seeing the Octagon House, the Odell Tavern, Robert Massie, the Tarrytown House, the East Irvington School and the O’Hara funeral, which was so large it was in the school auditorium.

Her secret to a long life? After her husband died, she got into wine. She started on Chardonnay and then  got into red wine, especially Pinot Noir.  Italian wine was fine, but the wines from Willamette Valley in Oregon were the best ones. Her favorite was Firesteed. 

She used to say, “In due time everything starts changing. So you know, you change with it.”