Marie Elizabeth Folin

Marie Elizabeth Folin was born on September 27, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York, and, after 97 plus years, she passed away on June 13, 2020, in Houston, Texas, finally succumbing to Alzheimer’s, after about a three and a half years battle with that disease. Her life was well lived in hope, spirit, hard work, determination, and devotion to God, family, and her country. Marie left behind a son and a daughter, grandchildren, three nieces and a nephew, plus many cousins and others that she touched through her life in friendship and family, in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, California, New York, and in places around the world where she and her husband traveled. Her family and friends are indebted to her for many things that are not counted in dollars and cents, not the least of which was her baking, in particular her awesome cookies, always ready for visitors, friends, and family.

Marie’s parents were Irish. Her father, James Edward Gallagher, came from Ireland and met the young woman of his dreams, Josephine Rose Austin, while working in a New York department store, Bergdorf Goodman. They soon married, when Josephine was just 18, and, not long after, Marie Elizabeth Gallagher was born in 1922.

Marie was the oldest of her generation, the first. She was the apple of everyone’s eyes. A picture of her holding a pot over her head, as an 18-month old (that somewhat typical child’s portrait of every generation) was thought to be the cutest and sweetest photo of a baby girl at that time. Her aunt, Mae, Josephine’s older sister, worked as an executive assistant at GE, and took Marie to work sometimes to show her off.

Marie was supposed to be called “Mary,” but was baptized “Marie,” due to apparent pressure at the church where there were French religious. In her life, she was called Marie, but her husband, Andrew, often called her “Mary,” and, when she traveled, she was sometimes called “Maria” by others outside of the U.S. Italian relatives on her husband’s side either called her “Maria” or “Mary,” with a strong Italian accent (sounding like “Me-reee”).

Marie had two sisters, Irene and Betty. Both are dead, sadly. So, the Gallagher girls, raised by their Irish parents, are now all together in heaven. Aunt Betty, the youngest of the three, died in 2016; Aunt Irene followed in 2019. Marie always looked up to her sisters as being “smarter” and more determined than she. Irene was athletic, tall, and math/engineering oriented; Betty, eight years younger, was hard-working and college-educated (a milestone in the family). Betty was a nurse who eventually was a head of nursing at the former Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, CA. Marie was close to them both and proud of their accomplishments.

Marie grew up in Staten Island, which had, at least then, a kind of “back water” or country reputation, as New Yorkers described it. The island had ponds in that “country,” and Marie was an ice skater in the winter, a graceful sport she liked to pursue even later when she started her own family in California. There is a film clip of her in the early 60’s gliding on an ice rink in Lake Tahoe. While those skates still exist today, the memory is of Marie quietly gliding, wind in her hair, a ballet princess on ice.

Marie and her sisters were Depression kids. They were raised on a love of America, a need for independence, and a pride that their father, James, always had a job – never glamorous, but always bringing in money to the household even in the darkest days in the 1930s. She was certainly a Roosevelt Democrat, tried and true, and she was very patriotic. She loved America.

Marie went to a Catholic elementary school (St. Paul’s) through eighth grade, and her faith was an important part of her life. She graduated in a pretty, long, white dress. After that, she attended public school and did well in school. She always talked about taking Latin in high school, and the Latin teacher (“Miss Long”), also a counselor, pushed everyone to take Latin. In 1941, she graduated from Curtis High School on “the island.” She was proud of that degree.

Marie never attended college. She was told that she did not need college. She may have regretted not going, though many did not attend college at that time. Instead, she went to a business school for about a year after high school.

Soon after high school, Marie went to work for the Bell Telephone Company. This was around the time that WWII started. Marie worked as a “Miss Bell,” which means that she went to the veterans’ hospital, Halloran Hospital (Staten Island), and talked with the injured vets and helped them make phone calls home. This was a little bit of an undertaking, as phones and long-distance lines had to be brought to the vets, often in hospital beds (this was way before the age of cell phones). Marie was about 20 then, cute and young, but looking professional and smart, too – in her Bell Co. uniform, with her hair tied up in braids. Some vets told her never to wear her braids again or they would take them down themselves.

She often talked about her help to one vet calling his family in a rural area in Appalachia. The family was not used to talking on the phone. There was only one in the town. She got pretty choked about things like that.

As with many in the East at this time, Marie’s family decided to move to California during WWII. Other family members moved there, too.

In California, Marie continued to work for the Bell Companies, now for Pacific Bell, in California. She worked in the HR (“Personnel”) department. Marie talked about making “home visits” to folks homes to see how they lived. Though hard to believe, this was part of the job application process then.

Marie was astounded by the difference between New York City and Los Angeles, California, which was much more relaxed. Women wore pants on the street (!). Also, the movie industry and actors were all around her.

The story of Marie’s life was an extension and part of the story of Andrew(“Andy”) Folin, her husband. Andrew was Italian-American. He was born in Chicago in 1918 but grew up in Italy because his father passed away due to the Spanish Flu. His Italian last name was “Foglino,” which was mispronounced by some Americans. Andrew returned to the U.S. when he was about 13, after being raised by his grandparents in a small town in Italy. Andy was sensitive to the American prejudice against Italians in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and he changed his name to “Folin,” when he came of age.

When he turned 19 years old, Andy traveled to California, leaving Chicago behind. His mother had given him a train ticket for a birthday gift, and he told her that he was never going back. He went to work for Douglas Aircraft in Southern California. His area was airplane hydraulics. Though he never had a college degree, he was a natural born engineer and a math wizard. He could build anything.

During WWII, he traveled with the Army Air Corps. and worked on the planes in places in North Africa, such as in Persia, now called Iran; he was in Burma and China, in India, and in South Africa. He was a “tech rep” for Douglas. When he returned to the U.S. in 1943, he was drafted and then served in the Pacific Theater. He was supposed to be part of the invasion into Japan, but that did not happen. He also spent time in Australia and the Philippines.

WWII was an important part of Andy and Marie’s lives and framed their views on the world. It was their bridge into adulthood, and the backdrop to many stories told over the years.

After the war, Marie and Andrew met and dated for five years before they married in 1953. They met at a church young peoples’ group. The group was called the “O’Teralites” and was part of Our Lady of Loretta parish in Los Angeles. They were married by Father John Ward, who later became a Bishop of the Catholic church in Los Angeles. Bishop Ward, Marie, and Andy remained friends for life.

Through the five-year courtship, Andy was persistent, though there was distrust on both sides – the Irish and the Italian. They had a fancy wedding planned at one time, but that was called off and eventually they just told their parents that they were getting married and the parents could show up or not – about five days before the ceremony. Everyone came to the wedding. It was very small, and the wedding party included Marie’s sister Betty. Marie did not wear a traditional, flowing white dress. She was married in a smart city suit, dark navy with white collars, and she wore dark 4-in high heels. Marie always credited Andrew with getting everything together, including the flowers and the photographer.

Marie and Andy did not go on a formal honeymoon. They went back to work the next Monday. They did take a driving trip to Mexico the next year, which they called their honeymoon. That trip was an adventure and part of who they were as a couple – travel was a big part of their lives. While they saw a lot of interesting things in Mexico (including viewing the Milky Way in the middle of the Mexican desert) –a memory that they talked about was of a Mexican man helping them on that desolate desert road, when their car had broken down. Marie was amazed at the stars and eternally grateful for the gentle emergency help that this stranger provided.

Marie and Andy had two children, Andrea and James, born in 1956 and 1957, respectively. When children came into the picture, Marie stopped working and stayed at home. The family first lived in the Silver Lake area in Los Angeles, on Fargo Street, in a house that Andy had built. The Keystone Cops had been filmed in that area, years before. In about 1960-61, the Folins moved to Los Feliz Hills, just below the Griffith Park Observatory. Their home dated to the 1920’s, designed by an African-American architect, Paul Williams. The home was large and very gracious, in the Spanish motif. Andy remodeled it some, adding in a new kitchen with a made-by-him paneled refrigerator (ahead of modern designs), which never stopped working for the 40 years that they lived there.

At this point, Andy was a refrigeration contractor with grease under his nails, servicing commercial establishments around bustling, star-struck L.A.– such as restaurants, markets, pizzarias, etc. He also designed walk-in freezers. Over the years, his work was quite varied, though he was always the guy that answered the calls. At one time, he built a two-block fish processing plant (that still handles fish from around the world), and, at another, he designed a very small, temperature sensitive, caviar refrigerator for one of the best restaurants in town.

Marie helped Andy in his business; she was the “in-house” secretary and bookkeeper. She also cooked the family meals, sewed clothes and Halloween costumes, and shopped sales everywhere, including the reduced meat bins in the grocery stores. She loved Jantzen’s, a local (and first of its kind) casual clothes “outlet”-style shop.

Marie was famous for her cookies, all kinds of cookies. They were large and delicious. Family members still talk about them today, how they like to “make cookies just like Aunt Marie.”

Marie also followed the American fad in the 60’s and 70’s of learning the basics of French and other high-dining cooking. This was the age of Julia Child, James Beard, and the Galloping Gourmet, and she was a fan of rotund chef, Mike Roy, a local radio celebrity, who had an hour-long daily show with a diminutive (and very witty) Irishman, Denny. She collected a bunch of cookbooks, jumped into the crepes sensation, and eventually excelled at, among other things, the art of pate a choux (French puffed pastries). She was passionate about cooking, and her cookbooks became stained, dog-eared, and falling apart in places. Her family and friends enjoyed the appetizers, meals and desserts that were her handiwork.

Aside from running their house and raising two children in Southern California, the Folins enjoyed much travel time, often visiting Italy (to see Andrew’s family) but also going to many other corners of the world. They saw lots of Europe and also went to many of the U.S. states, including Alaska, and also to the Far East (including China, Singapore, and Thailand), to Mexico, and to South America. Their first European trip was in 1959 aboard the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth ships—a highlight experience. Over the years, they told many stories about their journeys—with Marie doing most of the talking (of the two, she was the talker!).

The Folins also were into sailing, with a Challenger 24 to begin. Later on, and over three to four years, Andy built a sailboat (an Islander 37 – a kit into which he loaded an in-board Rolls Royce engine and all the state rooms, kitchen, Captain’s wheel, etc.) The sailboat was called the “MARIANDY.”

Marie and Andy were always there for others – whether supporting their children in school, at PTA, in the neighborhood, or at church (Our Mother of Good Counsel). They were dependable, caring, and “on it” – whenever anyone called.

After law school in 1981, their daughter, Andrea, moved to Texas for a job (and eventual marriage and a family), but son, James, married and remained with his family in California for a number of years. Helping James and his family, Marie and Andy sometimes took care of the grandchildren, Frances Andrea and Marie Margaret. The granddaughters fondly remember their grandmother’s cookies, digging in the side yard’s “sand box” of sorts, and being called “chicken” by a loving grandfather. Throughout, Marie remained the guiding care giver and moderator of all.

Eventually after Andy’s retirement, the Folins relocated to Carlsbad and were there for two-three years before Andy’s passing in 2001. He is buried at the San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside, where Marie will be interred, as well. After Andrew died, Marie moved to Houston, where her children could help her. She was here from 2003 to 2020.

In Houston and until the time that Alzheimer’s significantly afflicted her, she continued to cook and bake—cookies, of course. As she had with James’ children, she helped take care of her Texas granddaughter, Corina May, whom she saw graduate from St. Pius High School in Houston. She also continued to have a close relationship with her other grandchildren, Frances and Marie, and enjoyed being with other family members and friends who called and visited. Her travels also continued, though often with her children, and one trip was to France, taking a cruise with her son, visiting Normandy, and reliving some memories of “the War.” In Houston, she was a member of St. Michael’s Church in Houston and attended events and meetings of the Sociable Seniors group. In late 2016, she was able to hold in her arms a great-granddaughter, Hanna Marie, Corina’s daughter.

Marie did not have impressive awards or degrees; she lived for others. Just as she was so proud of her parents and sisters, she was thrilled to know the accomplishments of her children, grandchildren, nieces (Ann, Teri and Kathleen), nephew Kevin, her cousins, and all their spouses and children, as well as those of her friends. She promoted everyone’s achievements and prayed through life’s trials, hers and others. Her favorite saint was St. Anthony, and he seemed to lend a hand throughout the years.

In the end, it turns out, we all had a wonderful life because of Marie. We miss her.

Marie’s funeral mass is planned for Friday, July 31, 2020, at 1 p.m. at Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, California, with a graveside service immediately following at the Mission. The family respectfully requests donations to the Alzheimer’s Association in lieu of flowers.