Mary Theresa Chinnamma Mallavarapu

Maria Theresa Chinnamma Pothakamuri of Pomona, NY passed away on July 4th, 2022. She was born at St. Joseph’s Convent Hospital in Guntur, Madras Presidency (now Andhra Pradesh) India, on April 13, 1935. She was baptized at the Immaculate Conception Church, Ravipadu.

She was eldest of five children. Her siblings Thomasaiah, Philomena, Sunderraja, Balaraj predeceased her. Her sister Philomena also became a physician, graduating from Padua in Italy. She spent some with her in 1960, visiting Milan and Venice on her way to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

After schooling at St. Ann’s Convent in Ravipadu, she entered boarding school at St. Joseph’s convent in Guntur, graduating from high school in 1953. She achieved the highest grade in Physics and Chemistry and in two years secured admission to Guntur Medical College (Andhra University) in the year 1955.

She was married in 1959 to Leo Xavier Mallavarapu, who graduated with a PhD in Chemistry, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.

She joined Leo in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, in December 1960, where Leo was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan. During her stay in Saskatoon, she visited many places such as Banff, Alberta, Lake Louise, Lac La Ronge, among others and used to have get-togethers with friends. After returning back to the US, she continued her travels, traveling to Buffalo, Redfield, NY, Albany; Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City – all in Canada, Portland, ME, Vermont, Boston, Disney World, Tampa, FL, Springfield, IL, Owensboro, KY, Chicago, IL, Atlantic City, Washington DC, Immaculate Conception National Shrine Basilica in Washington DC, Apple Valley, CA, San Francisco, Los Angeles and many other cities, accompanied at various times by her mother, her husband, her family, and many visiting friends from India.

When her uncle, Archbishop Thomas Pothacamury came to New York, Mary drove with her husband a great distance to meet him via Regina, Winnipeg, Minneapolis, and Detroit, crossing into Canada, Niagara Falls, and New York – in a dilapidated 1947 Mercury with no first gear. (You can only go back uphill in reverse!) Mary enjoyed every moment! Later, she would be seen driving around New York in a red Corvette – quite an upgrade!

Mary and Leo had two children, Christopher Mallavarapu and Anita Soares. Mary left with her children in April 1963 for India and completed her medical degree studies with an MBBS in 1963 around the time of the India-Pakistan war. After spending 5 years in Madras, helping out at VHS hospital, she and her family moved to New York, USA in 1970, where she lived in Suffern and Pomona, NY.

Even though she graduated medical school years earlier, she passed her ECFMG, medical degree exam and her Pediatric boards, all in her first attempt. She did her internship at St. John’s Riverside, Yonkers and her residency at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. Astonishingly, she passed her pediatric boards BEFORE passing her medical degree entrance exam! Such was her fierce competitive determination. She established her pediatric practice as Mary Mallavarapu, MD in Pomona, NY and another as Kids Plus Pediatrics PC in New City, NY.

Mary went on many trips within and outside the United States. A notable long distance road trip spanned 7,500 miles with her husband driving through Chicago Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota, President Grant’s home in Galena, Illinois, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Montana, Glacier Park, Alberta,

and back to Saskatoon. She’s traveled within North America, Europe and Asia, and flew across the world to visit one of her granddaughters in Sydney, Australia. She’s seen many states in the United States and traveled to meet her children, daughter-in-law, son in-law, and 6 grandchildren in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, and California.

She has been to London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Padua, Venice, Singapore with her husband. In India, she has been to Madras, Trichy, Kerala St. Alphonso’s birthplace, Bangalore, Poona. Bombay, New Delhi, Hyderabad and several shrines including Velankani near Nagapatnam, and Pondicherry.

Mary was well known in the Catholic Church in Suffern, NY and she contributed for the Cornerstone in St. Boniface Church in Wesley Hills, NY in the name of Archbishop Thomas Pothacamury of Bangalore.

She was a member of the staff at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, NY and at Nyack hospital since the year 1975, retiring a couple of years ago. She has numerous friends and patients who admire her and is remembered as having taken care of Rockland County’s children for many years and supporting and mentoring many in their aspirations of working in healthcare. She was a devout catholic with a deep faith in Jesus and Mother Mary. She was a wonderful wife, an amazing and caring mother, and an excellent doctor with a passion for the wellbeing of the many children that she cared for.

She is survived by her husband Dr. Leo Mallavarapu, her two children Dr. Christopher Mallavarapu and Anita Soares, her daughter-in-law Janet Mallavarapu, her son-in-law Chester Soares, her grandchildren Dr. Cullen Soares, Jana and Ryan Wolter, and Isabel, Ann, Mary Chinnamma and Margaret Mallavarapu.

We will miss her dearly. May she rest in peace.

The livestream link to funeral mass on Saturday, July 9th, 2022 at 10am Eastern can be found here: https://youtu.be/rmOY_qdGlRI

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations to made to Save the Children: https://support.savethechildren.org/site/Donation2?idb=1425877772&df_id=3926&3926.donation=form1&FR_ID=1461&mfc_pref=T&PROXY_ID=1461&PROXY_TYPE=21