Our wonderful Aunt Mary Scott passed away on April 1 at 97 years old. She was the last of all of my mom's siblings and their spouses. Mary was married to my mother's brother, Tom. They lived in the Washington, D.C. area and as a result, we didn't get to see them as much as my other aunts and uncles.
The last several years, I did have the opportunity to get to know her a lot better. We were able to go to some family reunions back in Virginia and it was delightful. She and Teresa were very close and during my time in Douglas, they talked often. They were just a few months apart. This picture is from the reunion in 2016 that we we able to take Teresa. It was her last real trip. I love this picture.
During these very scary times with the Corona Virus and not being able to gather, her services will be at a later time. Her family invited all of to a Zoom service on Easter Sunday. I have to say that it was really awesome. I was thinking how sad it is that people have to wait for closure and I still feel that way, but the Zoom service was so nice. Each of her five children talked about memories of her. Then several of her grandchildren and nieces and nephews were able to speak of their love for her.
Here is her obituary from the newspaper. It speaks to who Mary was as a wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She will be missed by many. How fortunate she lived such a long and wonderful life!
I wasn't able to upload the obituary, but I am going to write it because it is worded so beautifully.
I wasn't able to upload the obituary, but I am going to write it because it is worded so beautifully.
MARY K. SCOTT
(1922-2020)
Mary K. Scott, beloved matriarch of the Scott and Krizmanich clans, died of pneumonia on April 1, 2020, at the home of her daughter in Rockville, MD. Mary was born September 5, 1922 in Ebensburg, PA, one of five children to Michael and Anna Krizmanich. Her fatherwas a coal miner, and her mother was the proprietor of their Green Acres bar in Kittanning, PA. They had emigrated to the USA from Croatia, formerly the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the years after World War I. As a child Mary witnessed the effects on her family of Prohibition and the Great Depression, which made the most profound impact on her life.
In early 1942, as enlistments in the Armed Forces were taking many men away from their jobs, there was a need for qualified women workers to fill their positions. She answered this call and got a job with the Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC. As she liked to tell the story, Mary arrived in Washington's Union Station on March 4, 1942, the first night of the WWII blackout, and hailed a taxi at 9 p.m. as the lights went dark. Her job at Agriculture ultimately led to a promotion and move to the Justice Department. After the war, on November 10, 1945, she married Thomas J. Scott, FBI Special Agent and later Chief Clerk of the Senate Appropriations Committee. They started a family soon after and had four daughter and one son. She was preceded in death by him in 2005 after 59 happy years.
Mary was strong-willed but also unassuming, welcoming, and friendly to all. She was the glue that held a large family and much larger extended family together throughout the years. Through regular family gatherings, her family history and influence has been passed down to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as dozens of nephews, nieces, great-nephews and great-nieces who are scattered all across the USA. Her impact continued well into her later years, where she was active in the social life of her new home, Maplewood Park Place in Bethesda, MD (to where she moved in 2007). She y littled used hobby never tired of starting new things and became a competent pool player after moving there and getting her friends to join her, thus saving a previously little used hobby room for other purposes planned by the facility.
She made it a point to get to know her care givers and workers at her new home. Getting names right was important. Her artistic and fashion sense were legendary and set a family standard none of her children could quite match: she dressed every day to the nines. Her frugality, the legacy of her Depression-era childhood, was a sobering lesson to all of us: paper towels could be reused with proper care; and to this day, no one of Mary's descendants can but think twice before throwing out a perfectly good used paper plate. Mary loved her family but knew we could -- no, should -- do better. She lamented, to no avail, her daughters' bad hair and failure to properly pre-warm dinner plates at family functions. Mary advised -- no, chastised -- nieces and nephews and grandchildren on proper etiquette, attire, behavior, and they paid heed because they knew she was the expert. She worried late life in life that she had been too strict a Mom, but the fact is that the good-hearted Mom always prevailed. Those closest to her knew her to be a warm figure with a spirited sense of humor, and we all looked forward to seeing her and to soliciting her always-opinionated take on our latest life developments.
She is survived by her daughters, Ellen Johnson (Nick) of Pittsburgh, PA, Ann Fila (Joe) of Sebring, FL, Judy Scott Feldman (Neil d. 2015) of Rockville, MD, Lisa Scott of Center Sandwich, NH, and her son Thomas J. Scott, Jr. (Michele) of Bluemont, VA, 12 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and countless nephews, nieces, and loving friends.
Contributions in her memory can be made to St. Jane Frances de Chantal Catholic Church, 9701 Old Georgetown Road, Behesda, MD 20814, and designated, at her wish, "For the poor."
Funeral services will be determined at a future date.
God Speed, Mary and thanks for the memories!!!!
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