Mary Deliso Johnston

Mary Deliso Johnston

Wife, Mother, Teacher

March 10, 1926 - June 2, 2018

Mary Johnston passed away on June 2, 2018 in Reading, Massachusetts, at the age of 92. She was born on March 10, 1926, at the family home on Pitkin Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens, New York, the ninth of ten children born to Vincenza Migliori and Clemente Deliso.

Growing up in a large Italian family, Mary strongly believed that hard work and education were the keys to success.  She was a natural teacher and life-long learner.  Her passion for learning started in 1930, when she started grade school at age four.  It continued throughout her life, as she earned two college degrees, encouraged her daughters to do the same, and enjoyed learning how to use a laptop and cell phone well into her 80s.

After graduating from John Adams High School in Queens, during World War II she worked as a secretary at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  Her dream was to go to college at a time when just five percent of American women earned four-year degrees.  Mary’s brother, Joe, paid the $500 tuition for her to attend the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Alabama, where she graduated with a history degree in 1950.

Shortly after graduating from college, Mary married Gerald Johnston, a New York City policeman (103rd precinct, Jamaica, Queens) and WWII Navy veteran, also from Ozone Park. They were married from January 20, 1952, until Gerald’s passing on August 28, 1978, and had three daughters: Patricia, Maureen and Joan.

Mary and Gerald lived in East Meadow, New York, and spent summers at their home on North Sea in Southampton. Holidays were spent back in Ozone Park at the Deliso family home, with Mary’s sisters and their families all gathered around one large table made from plywood and sawhorses.

Mary spent almost 25 years teaching shorthand and typing as a business administration teacher, first at Uniondale High School, then at Alfred G. Berner High School and Massapequa High School. In 1965, she received a M.S. in Education from Hofstra University. She continued to work full-time while raising her children and getting her graduate degree, which came at a price — her daughters will never touch frozen pot pies again — but further instilled in them the importance of working hard to have a good life.

In addition to her academic interests, Mary was a skilled craftswoman who made large needlepoint pictures and beaded flowers.  She was a self-taught, expert gardener.  She loved irises, gladiolas, miniature carnations and pachysandra, and was the queen of growing and sharing hostas.  Mary was known for digging up her hosta plants, putting the root balls in Ziploc bags and mailing them to her family to plant. Thirty years later, her original Long Island plants are still growing in Michigan, Baltimore, and Boston.

Mary had an insatiable sweet tooth; she loved sneaking candies to her grandchildren in church, or whenever their parents were not around. She had a love for fashion and jewelry, stemming from her younger days as a model.  She loved to dress impeccably, with 14-karat gold jewelry, a scarf, nice jacket, and her hair and makeup done.  As people who knew her well noted, she lived her long life on her own terms.

After retiring from teaching in 1988, Mary moved from East Meadow to Agawam MA to be closer to her older brother and closest friend, Benny. She moved to Reading MA in 2011 to live with her oldest daughter, Patricia, where she stayed until her passing.

Mary was preceded in death by her husband Gerald; brothers Joseph, John, Michael, Benjamin, Charles and Genardo Deliso; sisters Antonette Ceniglio and Rose Caruana; and son-in-law Keith Hersh.

She is survived by her sister, Grace Ferrara (Michael); daughters Patricia Johnston, Maureen Johnston (Stephen C. Ratkowiak) and Joan Johnston (Ross Kappelman); grandchildren Emily Greene Roemer (Mitch), Rebecca Greene, Gerald Hersh, Karl Hersh, Courtney Ratkowiak (Anthony Socotch) and Stephen A. Ratkowiak; and many nieces and nephews. She was particularly close to her nieces Jean Ceniglio Bernard and Virginia Deliso Govoni, and nephew William Caruana.

The family also wants to thank Mary’s caretaker for the last several years, Danyelle Yameen-Valler.

The family is hosting a private memorial service on June 16, with burial to follow at a later date at Long Island National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Mary’s name be made to Unitarian Universalist Church of Reading, 239 Woburn Street, Reading MA 01867. Please visit the website of the Anderson-Bryant Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Stoneham MA to share a memory with Mary’s family.