Mary Kathryn DeBenedetti

Born in 1941 in Decatur, Illinois, Mary Kathryn Bresnan moved to Glendale, California, at an early age with her parents and her sister Sue. They grew up in a close knit family, with their grandma Katie and two aunts close by, who were an integral part of her family. She and Sue shared the same birthday but Sue was two years younger.

MaryKay always considered herself a Californian, who loved the sunshine and warm weather. She attended and graduated from the University of Portland with a nursing degree in the early 1960’s. There she met John DeBenedetti, a Portland native and another graduate of the U of P, through mutual friends and they married in 1962. They had five children together and for most of their long married life, she was mostly a home maker. Some of her interests in the late 1960’s were tole painting, playing guitar and belly dancing.

She took a nursing refresher course in the late 1970’s and worked for a short time as a nurse at the Coliseum stadium, an allergy clinic, and downtown at the Federal building. Her absolute favorite job was doing home health care for new born jaundiced babies. She loved holding them and checking their vital signs, watching their progress.

From the late 1990’s on, MaryKay was also occasionally involved with John’s family beer and wine making supply business, F.H. Steinbart Co., working in the office for many years and then later, was more involved in running the business after John died.

MaryKay volunteered for the Urban Tour Group and enjoyed learning about the history of Portland, giving tours and made life long friendships there. She loved traveling, learning Italian, shopping, throwing parties and making beautiful flower arrangements.

A devout Catholic, she was a member of the Madeleine parish for about sixty years and took religious pilgrimages to Medjugorje, Rome, and Jerusalem.

She was a life long extrovert who could (and would) talk to anyone, made friends easily and everywhere; she will be sorely missed by her family and all of her many friends.