Mary Ellen Hays Farley, 83, a resident of Ventura for 54 years, died on January 24, 2023, in Ventura, California.
Mary Ellen was born in Los Angeles on January 4, 1940, to Rolfe Miller Hays and Mildred Frances Rider Hays. Her sister, Barbara Ione, was born in August 1941. Mary Ellen grew up in Glendale, California, and attended Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles and two years at the University of San Diego. She was trained as a licensed vocational nurse (LVN) and worked in doctors’ offices.
Growing up, Mary Ellen had an adventurous spirit. She loved the outdoors, camping, horseback riding, and swimming. She took ballet lessons from a very young age and grew up sharing in her mother’s passions for ballet, opera, the theatre, and the arts. She was also an accomplished painter. During the summer between high school and university, she spent a couple of months in Hawaii along with her sister, where they did modeling, learned about Hawaiian culture and dance, and tried tandem surfing. In 1960, she traveled with her parents and sister for several months throughout the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and India, for pleasure and business for her father’s international meat broker business.
Mary Ellen met her husband, James Matthew Farley, known to all as “Jim,” in acting school in Hollywood, California, in 1960. Jim and Mary Ellen married in Glendale, California, on August 24, 1963. They moved to Ventura in 1969, where Jim became a prominent criminal defense attorney and permanent deacon in the Catholic church. They had two daughters, Shannon Linda and Mary Kathleen.
Mary Ellen was devoted to her family, friends, and the Catholic church. She worked with the Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Ventura over the years as Religious Education Director, eucharistic minister, and bereavement counselor, and assisting her husband, Jim, in the RCIA Program. She and Jim were active for decades in the Los Angeles Archdiocesan and Santa Barbara Regional Deaconate Formation Programs, and they also hosted small faith community gatherings in their home.
She and Jim enjoyed traveling to many states in the U.S., including Hawaii and Alaska, western and eastern Europe, and the Holy Land. They regularly attended spiritual retreats in Pecos, New Mexico, and Saint Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, California.
Mary Ellen was preceded in death by her husband, Jim (2015); her parents; sister, Barbara Hays Caron; and half-sister, Patricia Hays McMullan. She is survived by her daughters Shannon Linda Farley and Mary Kathleen Farley Dietz, her sons-in-law Rolando Perez Gonzalez and Richard Dietz, granddaughters Katelyn M. Dietz and Adeline R. Dietz, and nephew Steven R. Caron.
Her funeral will be held on February 10, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, 3175 Telegraph Road in Ventura. A reception will immediately follow the service in the Santa Cruz Room in the Parish Center until 1:00 p.m. A private burial service will be held on February 12 at Saint Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo, California, where her husband, Jim, is buried.
Arrangements are under the direction of the JOSEPH P. REARDON FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION SERVICE, Ventura.