Mary L. York

MARY L. YORK, 1916–2012 Mary Helen Lesh York, 96, of Epoch at Melbourne Assisted Living in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, passed away on Wednesday, October 24, at Berkshire Medical Center, surrounded by her loving family. Mary waged a valiant battle that amazed her medical team.

Mary York was born in Vidalia, Louisiana, on September 9, 1916, the eldest child of Michael Lesh and Mary Herlevic Lesh. She grew up on the family farm in Hamburg, Arkansas, and graduated from Hamburg High School. When she was 20, with a great deal of courage, she boarded a train for New York City to live with a distant cousin and work for Western Union as a telephone operator.

She married Harry E. York on December 27, 1941, shortly before he was called to fight for his country in Europe. She endured 18 months of not knowing whether he would ever come back to her after she was notified that he had been taken as a prisoner of war by the German army at the Battle of the Bulge. But he did return safely to be honorably discharged in October 1945, and they remained happily married until his death in February 1991.

Mary was employed as a payroll supervisor by Continental Baking in Rye, New York, for many years, until her retirement in 1981.

After retirement she and Harry moved to Orlando, Florida. They loved visiting Disney, Busch Gardens, Cypress Gardens, and especially Sea World, and Mary took special pleasure in many visits to those theme parks with her children and later her grandchildren. She was a very social person and made many friends in Florida, with whom she played golf and tennis and bowled. She also loved animals and knew all the local dogs on her daily walks around her neighborhood.

In 2005 she moved to Melbourne and gathered a new group of friends; the staff there knew her as a kind and loving woman who was also a tease and could be counted on to take a joke well.

Mary’s family would like to thank the many staff members at Melbourne for the exceptional quality of life she was given during her seven years there, and during her final two weeks of life at Berkshire Medical Center, she received outstanding and compassionate care from the incredible ICU medical team.

Mary York was predeceased by her loving husband Harry, her sister Agnes, and her brother Michael. She is survived by her sisters Matilda of Waco, Texas, and Frances of Buchanan Dam, Texas; her daughters Eileen Clawson (husband Wayne Scace) of Pittsfield and Barbara York (partner Gail Gutterman) of Sunapee, New Hampshire; her granddaughters Morgan (husband Eric) and Maggie; her step-grandchildren Matthew and Sonia; her great-grandchildren Dean and Elaina; and many nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at Woodlawn Memorial Park & Funeral Home, 400 Woodlawn Cemetery Road, Gotha, on Tuesday, November 13. Calling hours are at 11:00 a.m., with a graveside service at noon. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent directly to a local animal shelter.