Mary Marie McWilliams-Barbato

On March 24, 1925 Ethel Perkins, a tenant farmer from Cuba Illinois, delivered identical twins. She and her husband, Frank Perkins, named them Martha May and Mary Marie. They were then the loving parents of six children. The baby Martha Marie died 10 months after she was born. Their mother Ethel Perkins survived only a year after giving birth to the twins. Frank Perkins was unable to afford and care for the five remaining children on his own.

Lilly Richardson, wife of a local shoe cobbler, was still mourning the death of her daughter. She agreed to adopt baby Mary Marie. Not long after Mary was adopted, Frank Perkins died. His remaining four children were left to fend for themselves. One joined a traveling circus. The other three went to an orphanage. The Great Depression was hard on Mary’s adopted family. There was no cash in the small town of Cuba. Mary Marie’s adopted father would repair shoes for barter when he could. More often, he would do it free of charge because there was nothing to barter.

In 1942, as the United States was beginning to enter WWII, Mary fell in love with a young man named John Robert McWilliams. Everybody called him Jack. Like Mary, Jack was the son of tenant farmers. On April 10, 1942 Mary and Jack eloped and were married. Mary was only 17 years old. Afraid that Jack would not return from the War, Mary insisted that she be pregnant before Jack was transported to Europe aboard the RMS Queen Mary.

On October 8, 1944 Mary gave birth to Constance Marie McWilliams. Connie was over a year old before her dad returned from WWII in 1946. Jack never completed high school and found in a job in Cuba Illinios as a coal miner at the local coal mine.

In 1952, California and the West held out the promise of a new and better life to Jack and Mary. Jack quit his job at the coal mine, loaded up their car and drove the family to California in hope of a new job and a better life. They moved first to Venice, California and then to Woodland Hills. Desperate for a job, Jack lied about his lack of a high school diploma on his employment application to Rocketdyne and was hired.

In 1962, Mary’s daughter Connie Marie graduated from Canoga High School and became the first person in their family history to graduate from high school.

In December of 1965 at the age of 40, Mary was thrilled to inform her 20 year old daughter Connie that she was pregnant with her second child. Connie Marie was Mary’s only child and the two were best of friends. Connie Marie was recently married and the two agreed that they should be pregnant together. Mary’s second child did not make it to full term but on November 23, 1966 Mary became a grandmother when Mary’s daughter had a son named John Charles Carpenter.

In 1967, Mary and Jack moved to the first neighborhood in Westlake village.

When Connie was divorced in 1967, Mary lived her dream of raising a child together with her daughter. She invited Connie and John into her home and raised her John like a second mother. While Mary watched and raised John, Connie worked as a secretary and waitress and quickly saved enough money to purchase her own home down the street from Mary on Lake Lindero.

Mary’s husband Jack succeeded at Rocketdyne. He was promoted to supervisor at the Saturn/Apollo rocket engine department. In 1969 NASA awarded Jack with the Apollo Achievement Award in appreciation of his contribution to Apollo 11’s first successful manned landing on the moon. Jack eventually disclosed his lack of a high school education to Rocketdyne without incident.

In 1973, Mary and Jack purchased a small ranch in Ojai, California and went back to their rural farming roots.

In 1975, however, Mary became a widow. Jack was a retired coal miner who loved to smoke Camel unfiltered cigarettes. Jack was installing a fence post at his ranch when he had the heart attack that would take his life. Mary left the Ojai ranch and moved in with her daughter at her daughter’s house on Lakefront Drive on Lake Lindero. When the ranch was sold, Mary purchased a home just a few houses away on the same street.

In 1977, Mary found love again and married Lloyd Barbato. Lloyd came from a large Italian family. He was charming and was always quick with a joke. Lloyd was a widower and had one teenaged son named Christian who Mary loved like a son.

In 1988 Mary’s grandson John graduated from UCLA and became the first in the family to graduate from college. With Mary’s love, urging and support, John went to law school, passed the California Bar in 1991 and became a trial lawyer in Beverly Hills.

Lloyd and Mary lived together on Lakefront Drive until Lloyd’s unfortunate passing in 2000.

On May 8, 2010 Mary walked her grandson down the aisle when he was married to Katie Seibel in Careyes Mexico. On March 2, 2011 Mary became a great grandmother when Charlotte Marie Carpenter was born. Mary was there at the hospital to hold Charlotte Marie on the day Charlotte was born.

Mary lived at her house down the street from her daughter on Lakefront Drive until 2:20 a.m on September 8, 2014. She was 89 years old. She held the hands of her only daughter and her only grandson as she took her last breath. Her last words were “I love you too”.