Mary E. Scally

With one last beat from a heart that had loved so much in her life, the soul of Mary Elizabeth Scally passed from this world to be with the Lord, surrounded at home by all of her immediate family at 4:53 pm EST on Thursday, December 13, 2018.

Mary’s passions in life were many, but taking care of her family and being a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and friend were her very best qualities. With a caring heart, she sought to make everyone’s existence in this world more meaningful with her constant thoughtfulness, imagination, creativity, and unwavering support. When Mary was involved, good times were made better, and even some difficult times were more easily endured because of her nurturing nature.

This remarkable person started life as Mary Elizabeth Rigsby in the rural farming community of Agricola, Mississippi on July 3, 1943, in her grandparents’ home. Mary would live her first 12 years enjoying the simple pleasures of country life, while also enduring the hardships of necessary work in the fields of Agricola. Among other responsibilities, this work sometimes involved picking cotton, which helped to support her family at a young age. At the early age of 6, Mary developed what would become a severe loss of vision, the beginning of a lifelong challenge for her.

In 1955, her mother Dorothy made a courageous decision to save the lives of herself and her children Joe, Mary, and Bonnie, from an abusive husband by escaping to Florida to create a new life in Tampa. Life for the single-parent family in 1950s Tampa was at first a struggle, but the new surroundings allowed young Mary to make many new friends and flourish at home, church, school, and in other activities.

Tragedy struck the family in 1960 when her older brother Joe was killed in an automobile accident in Tampa. Mary would continue to miss her brother throughout her life.

After graduating Hillsborough High School in 1961, and with an interest in Nursing, Mary attended Tampa Business University to hone skills that would ensure her success as a Medical Transcriber at Tampa General Hospital and later Memorial Hospital.

It was during a blind date on New Year’s Eve 1963 that Mary Rigsby would fall in love with the person that she would share the next 54 years with, a young man named David Scally. Married just 6 months later on June 28, 1964, Mary and David established the beginning of a fruitful life together. In 1967, they relocated to Pat Acres, a new subdivision in the Town & Country area of Tampa, making it their permanent home.

Through the years, Mary and David would often joke she had married him for his money, and that he had married her for her money - only to discover that neither had any. True love.

Parenthood visited the young couple in 1969 with the birth of their son, Kent. Just over seven years later in 1976, the birth of their daughter Karen completed their loving family. Mary would make the decision to retire from the medical industry and become a valued homemaker at this time, giving her family the undivided attention that many families never see or benefit from. The impact that this important decision made would prove to be monumental in the years ahead. Many happy times, birthdays, family gatherings, holidays, school projects and family vacations filled the days and years to come. A little later, their children’s weddings and four beautiful grandchildren offered Mary and David a new meaning and renewed purpose in life, providing them with magical and memorable moments to be enjoyed every second along the way.

Through the years, Mary’s diminishing vision would continue to challenge her, but she would refuse to have it limit her abilities. Considered legally blind, she carried herself with confidence and pride, never succumbing to her “limitations”, and sought to take part (and excel) in activities that would have otherwise been considered impossible for the vision-impaired. Remarkably, many people that she interacted with during her lifetime did not realize the extent of her vision impairment. Throughout her life, her lack of vision would NEVER be able to define her.

Mary Elizabeth Scally is survived and cherished forever by her loving husband of 54 years, David Edward Scally. Also, Mary is survived by her devoted and loving son Kenneth (Kent) Gordon Scally, his wife Celina Marie Scally, and their children Ethan Zander Scally and Sara Rhiannon Scally of Irvine, California. As well, Mary is survived by her devoted and loving daughter Karen Elizabeth Rosochowicz, her husband Karol Maciej Rosochowicz, and their sons Aidyn Karol Rosochowicz and Kye Adam Rosochowicz of Wesley Chapel, Florida. In addition, Mary is survived by her sister, Bonnie G. Kline of Utah, and pre-deceased by her brother Joseph Leon Rigsby as well as her mother Dorothy Voncille Issler.

Taken much too soon from us all, Mary, Mom, Grandma will continue to inspire her future generations through her legacy of love and courage that will be passed forward by the privileged ones that knew her while she walked this world.