Mary Kathryn Montag Petrucce left this world peacefully on June 3, 2021. She was born almost a century ago on December 8, 2021, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, to Edith Morgan Montag and Louis Montag in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Her father passed away when she was very young and tragically her elder sister, Dorothy, died soon after. Mary and her sister, Lenora (Lee), lived with her mother in Pottsville. Mary graduated from Schuylkill Haven High School in 1939 and then worked as a runner in a local department store where her mother was a milliner making fashionable hats. Mary helped make ends meet during the tough times of the Depression, helping her mother run a German Beer Garden.
She kept her spirits up roller skating in a troupe in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where Lee and her husband, Sam Chiodo, would drive her for rehearsals. Mary performed in a quartet of girl skaters. She could “shoot the duck”, hold a match in her mouth, lean her face towards the floor, and light a match on the rink floor. She met the love of her life in 1941 when Anthony “Tony” Petrucce gave her and her friends a ride home. After noticing his ice skates on the floorboard, she asked, “Do you skate?” He said, “Do I skate!” They then began a beautiful romance, a faith-filled 64-year marriage, and an amazing life together in Philadelphia and then Marion, Indiana. They often figure skated at the park and on Irish Lake when the water froze.
Mary raised six children: MaryAnn Gates (Bill), Kathryn Edith Miller (Ron), Anthony Joseph Petrucce, Jr. (Lorna), Loretta Ann Roselle (John), Elisabeth Christine Petrucce (Bill Hoeper), and Victoria Susanne Christ (John). She doted on nine grandchildren: Jeffrey Earl and Jennifer Elaine Gates; Anthony Joseph, III, and Laura Leigh Petrucce Bailey (Joel); Kevin Joseph, Kathryn Elisabeth, and William Kyle Hoeper; Mary Eileen and John Anthony Christ; one great-grandson, Mason Bailey. She loved her numerous nieces and nephews in Pennsylvania, California, and Oklahoma. She loved her kids’ new families and all the in-laws, and she often said how lucky her children were to join into wonderful families, lovingly termed “couscou”.
She is predeceased by her loving husband, Tony; her daughter, Kathy; and her grandson, Jeff.
Mom was a proud homemaker for three decades. She made family dinners, sewed clothes and Halloween costumes, made the best red velvet cake for every birthday, and was a school room mom many times. When the kids were grown, she started her second career working alongside her husband at Liniger Company, where her knack for managing money was put to good use. She knew the value of the dollar and never spent on luxuries for herself.
Mom had a never-ending curiosity to learn. Her favorite topic was history, and she loved reading books about the Civil War, even though she already knew the ending. She enjoyed visiting battlegrounds and historical sites like her 2008 trip to D.C. with her daughters. She could perfectly recite poems and Bible passages she memorized decades earlier in school without missing a word. She loved to dance the polka, the waltz, and the twist. She was an amazing water skier, a protective boat driver, and she adored taking long walks at her brisk, determined pace. She learned to cook a new heart-healthy diet when Tony was prescribed it and she ate the same in loving solidarity. She loved eating pork and sauerkraut, B & K sloppy joes, Arby’s curly fries, and enjoyed a Yuengling porter now and then.
Mom loved violets, not the potted plants, but the kind that grow on lawns. She saw beauty in what most consider a weed. She picked and sold them in bouquets as a child. They always reminded her of the hardships she and her neighbors endured during the Depression, and they helped her fully appreciate the good times that came later in her life. Violets attract butterflies, which she also adored. She loved going to the butterfly garden at Marion’s Matter Park, especially when the monarchs were released in September to make their long journey south. She would bid them “Vaya con Dios” as they left her hand. She loved watching cardinals come to her bird feeders and adorned her house with many cardinal decorations. Just minutes after she passed, her family said the rosary and a bright red cardinal appeared outside her window to let us know she would be with us forever.
By far, though, Mary’s most amazing quality was her faith in God. She loved going to St. Paul’s Parish and was active in the study club and prayer groups. She volunteered by helping the sisters serving at the convent in Tipton, as well as serving funeral meals for parishioners. She prayed the rosary daily, even in her last days, passionately to find comfort in prayer to the Blessed Mother. She watched the Catholic Mass daily when she could not attend Mass and took the Eucharist as often as she could. She was a good and faithful servant.
We ask that when you see violets, butterflies, or cardinals you will think of Mary and pray for her eternal rest for a life well-lived. “His Lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’” (Matthew 25:23)
Visitation will take place from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm on Thursday, June 10, 2021, at Needham-Storey-Wampner Funeral Service, North Chapel, 1341 N. Baldwin Ave., Marion, IN. A Rosary service will begin at 7:30 pm.
On Friday, June 11, 2021, a Mass of Christian Burial to celebrate Mary’s life will begin at 11:00 am at St. Paul Catholic Church, 1031 W. Kem Rd., Marion, IN. The family requests that, if possible, purple be worn to visitation and Mass. The family wishes to thank all of Mary’s caregivers from Home Instead and Ellera Hospice.
Memorial contributions can be made in her honor to the Macular Degeneration Association (Macularhope.org); the Matter Park butterfly garden, c/o FriendsOfTheGardens (www.Friendsofthegardens.us).
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