Mary Mellor, 92
Mary Mellor died on February 24, 2025. She was 92.
Mary Gillard was born in Fulton New York on June 16, 1932 and grew up with her father, Thomas Gillard, mother, Teresa and sister, Kathleen.
As a child, she played the organ at her church for 360 days a year during her childhood for mass before school until her sister took over when she went to college. When recently asked if this was a hardship, she replied, “Well, somebody had to do it!”
She graduated from St. Joseph’s College of Nursing in Syracuse, New York at 18 and met George Mellor when he was a patient on her orthopedic ward at Lennox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.
They married at “Our Lady of Good Council” in New York City and lived in Greenwich Village.
Mary’s nursing career included secondary school nurse at Solebury School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where George taught. Then hospitals too numerous to list as Emergency room and various ward nursing until she joined Corrigan Mental Health Center running the Prolixin Clinic and assisted doctors with patient therapy, analysis and medication. Mary had a keen understanding of humanity. One of her doctors once complimented her by saying that good psych nurses are born, not made. She retired at age 71.
Mary will be remembered as admirer of fine art and literature and as a loving mother to her kids - and to many of their friends.
A librarian at Marion’s Elizabeth Taber Library identified Mary as being one of their most devoted patrons, requesting hundreds of mystery novels which they had to procure from branch libraries all over New England.
She loved English & Irish poets including Samuel Beckett, Philip Larkin, Harvey Oxenhorn, Woody Allen and Shakespeare.
Mary also possessed a sparkling wit with a dark sense of humor.
Reflecting on a quote from Beckett which begins: “The periods of life which separate consecutive adaptations.. . . “ Mary commented: “At the age of 90 there aren’t too many adaptations left. . .”
Her refrigerator was covered with clipped cartoons, and favorite quotations:
One cartoon shows a couple chatting, strolling city streets: “I don’t think that Philip Larkin would like you, either.”
“More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” WOODY ALLEN.
“Our lives rest in the present when the past is too bad to remember and the future too dreadful to contemplate.” RUTH RENDELL
"It is arrogance to expect that our life always be music, HARVEY OXENHORN wrote in Tuning the Rig. "It is false pride to demand to know the score. Harmony, like a following breeze at sea, is the exception. In a world where most things wind up broken or lost, our lot is to tack and tune."
Another cartoon shows an old lady at the door listening to someone on her stoop: "Mrs. Walsh? Oh, good ... you're still alive.”
Mary is survived by her sister Kathleen Villeneuve, her children Ann, Mark, Paul and Teresa, their children, her son Christopher Mellor, daughter Emily Mellor Caruth, son in law Charles Caruth, and granddaughter Claire Mellor.
Mary was adamant about not having a memorial in her honor, never wanting to be the center of attention and not wanting to inconvenience anyone.
Donations to the World Wildlife Fund may be made in Mary’s name.
Comments or remembrances maybe e-mailed to: MemoriesofMaryMellor@gmail.com.
