Mary Ann (Orlando) Bessman, 84, passed away peacefully at home on Friday, January 14, 2022. A Funeral Mass will be held at 11:00 am on January 29, 2022 at St. Joseph Catholic Church (830 Poplar Street, Macon) with Fr. Emmanuel officiating. Rites of Committal/Burial will be performed at Evergreen Cemetery immediately following the service. A Rosary Vigil will be said at 5:00 pm on January 28 at Snow’s Memorial Chapel, 746 Cherry Street, followed by a visitation. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Mount de Sales Academy, 851 Orange Street, Macon GA 31204 or to the COPD Foundation at copdfoundation.org.
Mary Ann was born October 30, 1937 in Macon, GA to the late Celeste and Lucy Orlando, and was the oldest of three children. She attended Mount de Sales Academy in Macon, received her Bachelor of Science from Georgetown University, her RN from St. Joseph’s Infirmary in Atlanta and her MSN from Catholic University. For 25 years she lived in Reston, Virginia where she raised her 5 children with her husband of 57 years, John W. Bessman, Jr. There she worked as a nurse at Oakton Nursing Home and for Reston Nursing Service while active in her parish, Our Lady of Good Counsel. She returned to Macon in the 1990’s to care for family and worked as a medical transcriptionist at the Medical Center of Macon for 16 years. After many years of work, she formally retired in 2019 to Dayton, Ohio to be near one of her daughters and her young family. Mary Ann enjoyed conversation, birdwatching, reading, windowsill gardening, feeding stray cats and sewing. She derived satisfaction from using her abilities and education to serve others as seen through her efforts for La Leche League supporting breastfeeding mothers and as a volunteer seamstress with SWATCH (Sewing Women Are Touching Children’s Hearts) through St. Joseph’s Church making children's clothes and blankets for charity. She was known for being a practical and generous hard worker who valued finding a bargain and seeing how far she could stretch it. Mary Ann was very proud of her children and grandchildren and the fact that she never smoked a cigarette. She often recited as a guiding principle a paraphrase of Luke 12:48, “From whom much is given, much shall be required.” The word most frequently used to describe her, however, is that she was kind.
Mary Ann is preceded in death by her husband, John; her parents; and brother, Celeste Orlando, Jr. She is survived by her brother, Vincent Orlando, SJ; sons, Eric Bessman of Macon, Carl (Laura) Bessman of Round Rock, TX and Paul (Marcy) Bessman of Olathe, KS; daughters, Joan (Kenneth) Taylor of Cedar Falls, IA and Lisa (Jeffery) Pleinis of Springboro, OH; and her grandchildren, Zackary and Katherine Bessman, Walker, William and Warren Taylor, and Ava, Abigail and Luke Pleinis.
Visit www.snowsmacon.com to express condolences. Snow’s Memorial Chapel, Cherry St. has charge of the arrangements.
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