Marie Bystrak

She was born on Easter Sunday, April 4th, 1910 in Newark, New Jersey to Louis Anthony and Genevieve Anastasia Tarasko. She was a first generation American of Polish decent and attended Polish Kindergarten in Bloomfield, New Jersey. At the age of 16 she applied for her birth certificate to get a job and found that her name was not Stephania Marianna as she had been called since birth, but the doctor had mistakenly written down “Marie.”

She took horse riding lessons every Saturday as a teenager. Marie worked for AT&T as a telephone operator in 1929 in New Jersey. She had many suitors but fell in love with a childhood friend and married Walter Bystrak (deceased) on October 25th, 1930 in Saint Valentine’s Church, in Bloomfield, New Jersey. Walter and Marie had five children and raised them through the depression and WWII. They moved to California where Walter and Marie worked in war plants during the war. They grew homesick and moved back to New Jersey to be near family. Walter and Marie opened “Bystrak Realty” in the suburban communities of New Jersey including: Livingston, Hanover, Chatham and Mendham from 1950 through the 1980’s. They lived in New Jersey until 1988 when they moved to Fairfield Harbour in New Bern, North Carolina to enjoy retirement. Walter passed away in 1992 and Marie joined many social clubs in Fairfield Harbour. She lived alone in her house until she was 97 years old. She then moved to Assisted Living and then to Bayview nursing home.

Marie is survived by four children, Carol Anne (Bystrak) Ernst, of New Bern, N.C., Stephen Walter Bystrak, of Charlotte, N.C., Gary Louis Bystrak, of Emerald Isle, N.C. and Christine Ellen (Bystrak) Batt, of Mesa, Arizona. Marilyn Lois (Bystrak) Valentine, of Palm Bay, Florida preceded her in death in 2010. Marie Bystrak had 19 grandchildren and 24 great grandchildren and 6 great-great grandchildren.

A funeral mass will be held at Old St. Paul Catholic Church on Wednesday, October 22, 2014 at 3:00pm. The family will receive friends at Cotten Funeral home Tuesday, October 21, 2014 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm.