Mary Margaret LaFauce Metzke

Mary was a member of the Catholic faith and had been a member at Blessed Sacrament and also St. Thomas More Co-Cathedral, where she was instrumental in donating the crucifix from Italy that hangs over the altar. Mary was a self-taught, creative individual who read voraciously throughout her life. While her husband, the late Fred W. Metzke, Jr., was receiving his degree at the University of Illinois in Normal, Mary worked with Louis Hoover, PhD arranging celebrity musicians and entertainment programs for the university. She continued her life-long love of the arts with her artist husband, Fred, and was involved in community outreach to artists at FAMU and also helped found the LeMoyne Art Foundation. Mary was one of the first Presidents of that organization. Realizing that they had two children to educate on a professor’s salary, Mary worked with Fred’s designs and metal-crafting skills to found Designs by Metzke, Inc., a family corporation that designed pewter giftware and shipped internationally. In later years, she developed a soft goods company named “Sis” with her designs and opened an antique shop at the former site of the company’s retail division, Little Brother. In her final years, Mary enjoyed quiet rides along the old plantation roads around Tallahassee and Thomasville, appreciating the oak trees, butterflies and wildflowers.

Mary was preceded in death by her father, Leo LaFauce and her mother, Margaret E. LaFauce; two older brothers, Hank “Bud” and Leo; a son, Fred W. Metzke, III “Chip”; and her beloved dog, Babe. Mary is survived by two children, Stephen Timothy Metzke and Barbara Ann Metzke.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association or Big Bend Hospice in Tallahassee, FL.