Mary Margaret Seifried

Mary Margaret Seifried had her eyes on a world beyond her childhood home in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Mount Pocono High School, she worked for the Hay-Ven convalescent hospital, also known as the Pocono Haven. Later, she worked for General Motors Corporation, and moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey to live with her Aunt Tess and Uncle Bill.

After she and John Seifried married, they lived in Newark, New Jersey and in Flushing, Queens, New York before moving to Miami with their two young sons. They eventually settled in North Miami. When John died, Mary stayed in her adopted town, handling bookkeeping for John’s Gulf Service, selling for Avon, working for the North Dade YMCA, and later doing volunteer work in the office of St. James Catholic Church.

Mary lost her own mother at an early age, but devoted herself to raising and educating her two sons, and was active in the St. James Parents’ Club.

Mary passed away March 18, 2010 at age 94, after valiantly holding an illness at bay. She is survived by her sons Jack (John C.) and Gerard Kevin; daughter-in-law Mary Anne; granddaughter Alison; cousins Margaret Barrett Jackson and Ceil Merkel (and Ceil’s family) of Pennsylvania; Stella Marion of New Jersey; sister-in-law Mary Edna McCarthy of Pennsylvania, and nieces Judy Austin and Janice Fazzari, and their families.

Viewing will be held on Friday April 16, 6 – 9 PM, at Lithgow-Bennett-Philbrick Funeral home, 15011 W. Dixie Hwy. A funeral Mass at St. James Catholic Church, North Miami, on Saturday April 17 at 10:00 AM will be followed by interment at Southern Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Miami Jewish Health Systems, whose Douglas Gardens facility cared for her in her final years.