Mary G. Vaccaro

VACCARO, Mary G., 98, of Clearwater, FL formerly of Tampa, FL died November 30, 2014. Mary was born in Tampa and was very devoted to her family. Mary was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Sam Charles Vaccaro, DDS and daughter, Shirley V. Lentz. She is survived by her daughter, Elaine V. Yacalis, son-in-law, George S. Yacalis and many cousins. Please visit www.serenityfuneralhomelargo.com for service details and to send condolences. Flowers are welcome as will be memorial contributions to the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida www.uflib.ufl.edu.

Biography for Mary G. Vaccaro

Mary Gatto Vaccaro was born in Tampa, Florida on March 9, 1916 to Sebastiano Gatto and Vincenza Costa Gatto, both immigrants from the Province of Agrigento, Sicily, Italy. Her father was from the town of Ribera and her mother was from the small agricultural town of Alessandria della Rocca, also known as Lishannera. Her parents met and married in Tampa and became American citizens. Mary was the youngest of 3 children. Her older brothers were Mathew and John. Her father's brother, Onofrio, was a tailor in Tampa when Mary was a small child. He loved her and her brothers very much. Uncle Onofrio went back to Sicily for a visit, found a bride and married, and never returned to the U.S. It was a loss for Mary and her family but fortunately, Mary's mother came from a large family of siblings, all in Tampa.

At the time of Mary's birth, Women's Suffrage in the United States had not yet become a reality. The right to vote remained very important to her, continuing to vote even in the November 2014 election.

She considered herself very lucky to have been born just in time to be sent to school. Around the time she was of age to begin school, laws were passed requiring parents to send their daughters to school. She felt that without this new law, her parents would not have understood the need to send her to school.

At age 14 Mary began working on week-ends and summer vacations as a salesperson at a dime store, Woolworth's, in downtown Tampa. Keeping this job, she also worked at a pants factory when she became an older teenager, tacking down belt loops. As fate would have it, the factory owner was good friends with the owner of Maas Brothers Department Store, the premiere department store in Tampa. Surely because Mary was so accurate, precise, and neat in her work, she was offered a job at Maas Brothers in the Linen Department operating a new monogramming machine that she was trained to use. She did not apply for this job. The owner went to her to offer the opportunity to her. With great hesitation, she accepted the job, learned to use the machine, and did all the monogramming for Mass Brothers for eleven years. During this time, she also performed other tasks such as sales, inventory,etc.

Finally, World War II ended, she resigned her job, married Dr. Sam Charles Vaccaro, D.D.S. and they started a family. The rest of her life was devoted to her family. She was initiated into the Order of the Eastern Star, was active in PTA, and became a Grey Lady, volunteering at the clinic of her children's elementary school. Mary also spent many hours sewing costumes for dance recitals, school pageants, and Halloween.

Summer vacations were traveling times, often out West, especially to California where her uncle and 3 cousins lived and to Las Vegas, but also to the Smokey Mountains to avoid the Florida heat, and sometimes to New York. These were always road trips.

Right up to the end of her life, she could tell stories of the places they had visited and what they had seen and done there.

After years had passed, her husband was struck by lightning and survived. This resulted in a spinal cord injury that worsened as the years went by. Finally, he became disabled and she cared for him for 24 years. Taking care of him became the center of her life during these years. She always said she did the best she could to give him the best care. And she did.

In 2003 Mary's daughter, Shirley, passed away unexpectedly. This was devastating to her. She moved from Tampa to Clearwater to be near her daughter, Elaine, and her son-in-law, George. During this time she never wanted to stay at home. She went out to a mid-afternoon lunch almost daily with a friend or relative, took many cruises with Elaine and George, made many friends in her apartment building and the restaurant she frequented, and brought joy, warmth, happiness, and laughter to everyone around her. A friend even called her Mary Sunshine! The older she got the wittier she became. As long as she could talk, she was making people laugh. She even had her doctor laughing almost uncontrollably at the hospital toward the end. She made Elaine and George laugh every day she was with them. Mary saw a lot of changes in her life and changed the lives of those who were fortunate enough to know her.