Marks, Mary, 96, of Wellesley Hills, passed peacefully on February 19, 2015, at Newton Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. Mary, the beloved wife of the late Emerson Marks, was born in Queens, New York, where she attended Public Schools No. 97. She won a free education to Hunter College in New York City by receiving an outstanding score on the New York Regents exam. After college she worked for the American Bankers Association for five years. Informed that Emerson would shortly be going overseas with his battalion she jumped on a train to El Paso where he was stationed and married him in the army chapel the following day. When her children became school age she pursued a degree in elementary school education and then taught third grade for nine years in Clawson, Michigan.
After moving to Wellesley, Massachusetts, she earned a Master’s degree in Library Science from Boston University and worked for a time as a school librarian in the Wellesley and Dover School systems. During her retirement years she particularly enjoyed substitute teaching in the Wellesley Public Schools. For personal enrichment she took many courses open to senior citizens at Wellesley College. A member of the Needham YMCA, she swam several times a week well into her eighties, and rarely missed her daily three mile walk. A passionate member of the Foreign Policy Association for many years, she chaired a Great Decisions discussion group in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She was also a co-founder and active member of American University of Women for Life. An avid reader, even after losing her central vision and having to switch from print to audio selections, she continued her weekly treks, often on foot, to the Wellesley library. Her greatest joy was summering with her husband and family at Leetes Island in Guilford, Connecticut, on Long Island Sound. There she happily spent countless seasons among many of her dearest longtime friends swimming, and day sailing a Blue-Jay, and then a Lightning and finally cruising long distances with her husband aboard their Priscilla Sloop, Nausicaa. A lover of travel, she delighted in choosing a location and planning an annual trip, usually overseas. Proud of her Irish ancestry she always insisted that her last voyage would be to Ireland; and indeed it was. She leaves a daughter, Anne Johansson and a son-in-law, Brian of Wellesley, Massachusetts; a son Emerson and a daughter-in-law Laura of Charlottesville, Virginia, and her grandchildren Kristina, Katherine, David, Robert, and Maria.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held in the Chapel of St. Teresa of Avila Church, West Roxbury, Massachusetts Wednesday, April 1, 2015, at 10:00am. Relatives and friends kindly invited. in lieu of flowers, donations in Mary’s memory may be made to the Congregation of St. Athanasius, St. Lawrence Church, Brookline, MA 02467; or American Macular Degeneration Foundation; PO Box 515; Northampton, MA 01061.