Mary F. O'Hara Pascoe

She was born Mary Frances O’Hara on November 1, 1915 in Avoca, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the oldest child of John O’Hara, a coal company executive, and Rose O’Hara, a musician and church organist. She graduated from Marywood College with a B.A. degree in English in 1936, but, teaching jobs being scarce, she had a temporary job engraving makeup compacts at the Scranton Dry department store when she caught the eye of William Pascoe. They married in 1942 and moved to Baltimore, Maryland. He shipped off for army duty, and she took a job as an elementary school teacher. The birth of their first daughter Jean, nine months after his return from the European front, interrupted Mary’s teaching career; Jean was followed by three more girls over the next thirteen years. They relocated to Winter Park, Florida in 1962 because of Bill’s work as a contracts administrator for Martin Marietta, now Lockheed Martin.

As a devoted member of St. Margaret Mary Church, Mary served as a substitute teacher at St. Margaret Mary School (sometimes, to their dismay, in the classrooms of her daughters), taught religious education on Sundays, participated in Cursillo, and worked in summer religious education programs. She served as a volunteer tutor at Harbour School, assisting children with learning disabilities, and she lined up motivational speakers for the Orange County Juvenile Detention Center. For many years her car’s trunk was full of bread which she wheedled from local grocery store managers so that volunteers at St. Margaret Mary Church could make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the homeless. A dab hand at rapid sandwich construction (a skill she had perfected while making sandwiches on a Styrofoam cooler lid during yearly summer car trips back to Scranton), she could be critical of slow sandwich makers.

She prided herself on her stern classroom persona, which served her well during her long tenure as a substitute teacher in the Orange County School system. In later years, she worked exclusively at Winter Park High School, fearlessly standing in for math and Spanish teachers even though she spoke no math or Spanish. Perhaps because of her imposing demeanor and unchanging hair style (a French twist), her short-term students remembered her; she was pleased to be recognized as their former substitute teacher by Publix cashiers.

She also enjoyed making ceramics, riding her bicycle (well into her eighties), and interacting with neighbors (she lived on Dunraven Drive for nearly 50 years). She was quick to laugh at other people’s jokes, and she took pleasure in hearing about her children’s lives.

She moved to Central Florida reluctantly, but she hadn’t lived in Winter Park long before she had difficulty imagining why anyone would choose to live anywhere else.

Mary Pascoe is survived by four daughters, Jean Weinschenk of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Ann Pascoe of Winter Park, Marie McDonald of Winter Park, Judith Pascoe of Iowa City, IA; sister Jane Krupa of Emerson, New Jersey; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband William James Pascoe and her sister Rose Mary O’Hara.

A Funeral Mass to celebrate her life will be held on Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 10:30 AM at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, 526 North Park Avenue, Winter Park. Arrangements entrusted to Carey Hand Cox-Parker Funeral Home in Winter Park. www.carey-handcox.com