Mary J Rositano Dumas

Mary Josephine Dumas (born Rositano), 95, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, died on February 1, 2024. Mary was known to her family as “Nany.” She was a deeply loving person who excelled in real estate and made her family the center of her life. Mary loved dancing and cooking for her family. Along with traveling, she enjoyed looking at real estate and had an affinity for Shirley Temple films. She had a quick wit and loved to laugh and reminisce.

Mary was born to Italian immigrants Adele and Giuseppe (Joseph) Rositano in Utica, New York, on February 2, 1928. As a child, she worked in her father’s grocery store and picked beans on local farms in the summers. 

In 1949, when she was 21, Mary wed her first husband, Vern, who had served as an artilleryman in the Army during World War II. They made their home in Utica, where they welcomed their first three children, Ron, Glen, and Mardele. In 1954, the family relocated to South Florida, where Mary and Vern’s fourth child, Kenny, was born, and where Mary and many of her descendants have lived since. 

In 1973, Mary was married to Bill, an aviation mechanic for Pan Am Airlines who had served in the Marines during the Korean War. Over the following decades, Mary welcomed six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and was adored as a matriarch by all of them. It was her grandson, Trevor, who first called her “Nany.” (Bill became “Poppy.”) Mary lost Bill in 2000, after 27 years of marriage.

Mary worked as a bookkeeper for Sears for 20 years. In her retirement, she launched a second career as a real estate agent. Based on the volume of her home sales, she achieved the distinction of joining the Coldwell Banker Million Dollar Club. She also applied her real estate savvy to purchasing, renovating, and managing rental properties.

Mary worshiped at the Miami Lakes United Methodist Church, where she was a member of the church community for many years. Raised Catholic, she also enjoyed spending time in the company of her good friend Bob at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church of Hialeah.

Mary’s family will remember her most for her devotion to them. Throughout her life, she worked hard to support them both financially and emotionally. She made countless sacrifices so that her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would have more opportunities than she did. She was always warm, kind, forgiving, and encouraging. When her first husband Vern fell ill near the end of his life, though she had not been married to him for decades, Mary took him into her home and helped care for him until his death. Mary’s family could always find in her a source of comfort and stability—especially in the most difficult moments of their lives. 

In the last few years of her life, Mary experienced health problems that made it necessary for her to live in a nursing home, Westchester of Sunrise. During this time, her daughter Mardele took responsibility for her care. Mary was surrounded by love, receiving frequent visits from her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, as well as from their spouses and partners. They all carry with them the legacy of the example she set. She will be greatly missed.

Mary was preceded in death by her husband Bill; by her stepson, Bobby; by her parents Adele and Joseph; by her first husband and father of her children Vern; by her siblings, Joe, Len, Josie, and Ida; and by her niece, Adele. Mary is survived by her children, Ron, Glen, Mardele, and Kenny; by her stepchildren, Larry, Susan, and Billy, as well as their children and grandchildren; by her grandchildren, Joseph, Benjamin, Trevor, Chelsie, Olivia, and Vincenzo; by her great-grandchildren, Samantha, Emma, and Kaylee; by her descendants’ spouses and partners, Silvia, Nelly, Tony, Teri, Summer, and Katrina; and by her brother-in-law, Mike.

A private graveside service and burial will be held in her honor.

Instead of flowers, Mary requested that donations be made in her memory to 

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.