Mary Emma Feather

A visitation for Mary will be held Friday, March 22, 2024 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Harbor Lawn-Mt. Olive Mortuary & Memorial Park, 1625 Gisler Ave, Costa Mesa, California 92626. A graveside service will occur Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 11:00 AM at Inglewood Park Cemetery, 720 E Florence Avenue, Inglewood, CA 90301.

Mary was born on August 7, 1938, in Budapest, Hungary, to Stephen and Ediltrud Felszeghy. A few years after her birth, World War II broke out. Mary had completed a few months of her first grade schooling when Budapest came under attack. It became clear to her father that Hungary would fall to the Communists. So, in November 1944, her father decided to board a train with his family to flee to the west. The train was strafed by U.S. planes once while Mary’s parents covered her and her brother Stephen for safety with their own bodies underneath the passenger car. The outcome was the locomotive was knocked out, but the Hungarian railroad company managed to replace it, and the train moved on to the west.

In the end, the Felszeghy family made it safely to Bavaria, Germany, and eventually to Munich, Germany. Mary’s father found a job with the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and Mary resumed her schooling but now in the German language.

Mary’s father set his sight on immigrating to the United States, and he submitted the Felszeghy family’s application. Because it was known then that admission to the U.S. may take years, Mary’s father applied for immigration to other countries as well, including Argentina and Canada.

Argentina was the first country that said the Felszeghy family could come. So, in the winter of 1948, the Felszeghy family boarded in Bremerhaven, Germany, the U.S. Navy transport ship named General S.D. Sturgis and travelled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, arriving in the summer there. Mary resumed her schooling, but now in the Spanish language. By tradition, at the start of the school day, the pupils assembled before the Argentine flag and sang the Argentine national anthem.

Mary had started her secondary education in Buenos Aires when Canada said the Felszeghy family could come. So, in 1952 the family moved to Toronto, Canada. In 1953, Mary’s sister Emmy was born. Mary was enrolled in St. Joseph’s College School for girls from where she graduated.

Pre and post-World War II immigrations of Hungarians to various countries created a Hungarian diaspora. So, both in Buenos Aires and Toronto, Mary’s family connected with many other Hungarian families who sometimes helped each other. These immigrant Hungarians founded Hungarian oriented organizations and churches in their new home countries. In Toronto, Mary and her brother joined a Hungarian folk dancing group and performed dances wearing Hungarian folk costumes at various events including folk dancing competitions.

When Hungary became Communist, the government abolished the Boy and Girl Scout movements. In response, the Hungarians abroad formed the Hungarian Scout movement in exile, which exists to this day even though scouting has resumed in Hungary. Mary’s father, Mary and her brother, all became active in Hungarian Scouting in Toronto. The Hungarian Boy Scout troop in Toronto participated in the 1955 8th World Scout Jamboree held at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and Mary was a visiting girl scout.

While the Felszeghy family was in Toronto, her father’s long-time held dream, which had gone on for eight years, finally came to pass; the United States said the Felszeghy family could come. So, the family packed up and moved to Los Angeles in 1956.

Mary enrolled in Woodbury College and earned a Business Administration degree. She embarked on what was then called a secretarial career. She started to work for the investment firm Francis I. duPont in downtown Los Angles.

Mary was then hired by the Carnation Company at its headquarters on Wilshire Blvd. Around this time, Mary decided to continue and round out her education by majoring in German and Spanish literature at UCLA.

Mary then got a job with McDonnell Douglas Corporation (MDC) in Santa Monica. It was at MDC where Mary met John Feather who became her husband and the love of her life. Mary and John were married in 1971 at the Felszeghy family’s parish church, St. Ambrose Church in West Hollywood. For their honeymoon they went to the Hawaiian Islands and continued to vacation there every year. Early in their marriage they also traveled to Budapest to introduce John to the relatives. Later on in their retirement years, they purchased a condo in Palm Springs as a second home. Mary and John were married just a few months short of 40 years.

Mary was transferred by MDC to Huntington Beach and John was transferred to Long Beach. For these reasons they moved their home from Santa Monica to Fountain Valley. Eventually, Mary went to work for the University of California, Irvine, from where she retired.

Mary was the matriarch of the family. With great love, she hosted numerous family gatherings for birthdays and holidays. She was actively interested in the well being of the family members.

Mary lost her “love of her life,” John, when he passed away in 2010. In the years that followed, Mary reminisced many times about John, and she always said she missed him deeply.

After John’s passing, Mary became an avid gardener; she particularly liked to tend to her roses. She also liked to color, with coloring pencils, preprinted very intricate black and white line drawings of flowers, animals, various characters, and abstract geometric diagrams. She mailed these colored works of art often to family members and friends. Mary had a great interest in, and liked to discuss, current events, especially the latest developments in space exploration. She had taken an astronomy course at UCLA. She liked to sit and relax out in front of her house and watch the goings-on in her neighborhood.

Mary is survived by her brother Stephen (Diana), sister Emmy (Steve), three nieces: Stephanie, Elizabeth and Erin, two great-nieces: Bianca and Ilona, and two great-nephews: Leo and Valen.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital https://www.stjude.org/give/memorials-and-dedications.html?sc_icid=wtg-mm-memorial-giving

Mary’s family thanks everyone for the love and support during this difficult time, and appreciates the bountiful love and prayers they’ve received from relatives and friends.