Mary B. Witte of Rockledge, FL co-owner and co-founder with her husband Harry Witte, of Rockledge Gardens, and a former teacher at St. Mary’s School, died on February 6, at home at Palm Cottages. She was 97.
Born Mary Aurelia Gertrude Benedetto in 1920 in Macon, Georgia, Mary was one of seven children of Gertrude Kennington and Aristide Aurelio Benedetto, who had come from Italy when he was 13. The name Benedetto means “blessed,” and Mary often said that her life was truly blessed. Of her six siblings, two, Frank and Arnold, became Jesuit priests, and two sisters, Gertrude and Elizabeth, became nuns. Mary studied at Sienna Heights University in Adrian, Michigan, and then at the St. Louis University School of Nursing. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and Registered Nurse license in 1942. “Papa’s ‘magnificent obsession’ was that he wanted each of us seven children to receive a college education, and I, personally, had always dreamed of being a nurse,” she said in a memoir written for her family. Although she never practiced nursing, she wrote her graduate thesis on the topic of “Nursing as a Preparation for Life.”
Also in 1942, she married Harry L. Witte, Jr., of Cincinnati, Ohio. The couple moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 1943 when Harry Witte was stationed there with the Navy. They made Florida their permanent home, moving first to St. Augustine, then to Cocoa in 1948, and in 1955 they settled in Rockledge. Mary was active in St. Mary’s Church, its Catholic Women’s Club Altar Society, and its CCD religious education program. Later she served as Eucharistic minister and minister to the sick. In 1961, the church’s pastor at the time, Fr. Charles Spellman, recruited Mary for a “temporary” position teaching the third grade at St. Mary’s School, to replace a teacher who had become ill. The stint became an 11-year teaching career, including several years teaching a class of fifth- and sixth-graders in the old St. Mary’s Church on Barton Avenue in Rockledge. “One rule I had to insist on was that there could be no ringing of the big church bell up in the former choir loft,” Mary wrote. “I did tell the students that we could all break that bell-ringing rule when the Vietnam War ended. It was a couple of years later, when I was no longer teaching, that one of the sixth graders remembered my promise and called me up to say that the principal, Sr. Salome, had given them permission to ask me to come over and help them ring the bell.”
After retiring from teaching, Mary became a volunteer in Hospice in the pioneering days of the program associated with Wuesthoff Hospital. She continued to be very active in Hospice for 25 years, putting her nursing degree to practical, related use. Mary was in Hospice care when she died.
Mary also joined Harry Witte in the operations at Rockledge Gardens, which Harry had founded in 1960. She continued working at the garden center after Harry died in 1998, and was a daily presence at Rockledge Gardens for years after her daughter and son-in-law Theresa and Kevin Riley took over the business as co-owners. Harry and Mary had a summer home in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, and became active in St. Margaret’s Catholic Church there.
Mary is survived by her sister, Sr. Mary Arnold of Adrian, Michigan; six children and their spouses: Mary Clark and Jim Clark of Tallahassee, FL; Harry Witte III of Harrisburg, PA; Frank Rogers-Witte and Cally Rogers-Witte of Cocoa; Paul Witte and Jim Caumo of Rockledge; Anne Garland and David Garland of Red Hook, NY; and Theresa Riley and Kevin Riley of Rockledge; eleven grandchildren: Ned Clark, Elizabeth Jensen, Ian Clark, Isaac Witte, Joshua Witte, Mary Ann Ciciarelli, Beth Garriott, Kenji Aristide Garland, Joseph Lark-Riley, Aurelia Rose Riley, and John-Michael Riley; and eight great-grandchildren: Leela Gita Clark, Krishna Gopal Clark, Ian Jensen, Audrey Jensen, Emma Rose Jensen, Lee Samuel Ciciarelli (deceased), Evelyn Ann Ciciarelli, Amaya Garriott, and River Lark-Riley. She is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews.
Celebration of Mary Witte’s life will be held at the Life Event Center at Florida Memorial, 5950 South U.S. Hwy 1, Rockledge, FL on Thursday, February 15, 2018 from 6 to 8 pm. Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated on Friday, February 16, 2018 at 2 pm at St. Mary’s Catholic Community, Rockledge.
In lieu of flowers, the family recommends donations to Vitas Community Connection (providing support to hospice patients), 4450 W. Eau Gallie Blvd #250, Melbourne, FL 32934 OR to St. Mary’s Helping Hands, 1136 Seminole Dr., Rockledge, FL 32955.
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