Mary Lou Pesavento - Jun 27, 1931 - Feb 11, 2015
Mary Lou Catherine Pesavento, of 351 Bend Hill Road, Fredonia, passed away in the early afternoon of Feb. 11, 2015, in hospice at UPMC Horizon, Greenville, following an extended critical illness. She was 83. The daughter of Sylvan and Mary DePaoli (nee Havel), she was born June 27, 1931, in Cecil, Pa. Mary Lou graduated from the former Cecil Township High School in 1949, and subsequently graduated in autumn 1952 from St. Francis School of Nursing, Pittsburgh. She attended, beginning in 1953, the University of Pittsburgh in the evenings (working toward a degree in psychiatric nursing, for which she completed the course work) while working day shift as a registered nurse at St. Francis Hospital, Pittsburgh. She also worked as a clinical instructor at Woodville State Hospital, Collier, Pa., into the early months of her marriage. She was a devout Roman Catholic, following her conversion, along with the rest of her family, in 1940. In September 1956, she married Benjamin George Pesavento, an honorably discharged Army veteran and degreed chemist/botanist, and together they raised a family of four children, all of whom became university graduates. She was a prodigious homemaker, baking bread, pies and cakes; knitting socks and mittens; and cooking meals, including Italian and Hungarian recipes. She loved gardening, especially raising vegetables and flowers. Her love of reading books (especially histories and cookbooks) and listening to classical and American historical music also was instilled in her children. She was very proud of her Hungarian ethnic heritage, which was in part expressed in her ownership of uniquely Hungarian dog breeds, including several pulis, kuvaszes, as well as viszlas. Mary Lou was preceded in death by her parents in 1967 and 1994 and her husband in 1993. She is survived by two siblings, Sylvan DePaoli, Cecil; and Eleanor Ventresca, Fairfield, Conn.; and her four children, Karen, New York City; Philip, Knoxville, Tenn.; and Peter and Alissa, Fredonia, both of whom who had been taking care of Mary Lou in her last years. The Pesavento family also wishes to thank UPMC Home Health’s Team 30, the personnel of the CCU unit at UPMC Horizon, Greenville, as well as the nurses and rehab specialists at Avalon Springs, Mercer, for the medical care they provided to Mary Lou. Memorial services will be held at a later date, when the weather improves.
Published in The Sharon Herald.
