Mary Elizabeth Titus passed into Heaven on September 18, 2021. She was born on April 23, 1930, in Brooklyn, NY, to the late Austin Edward Titus and Helen Timms Titus. Mary graduated from St. Angela Hall in 1948 and married Paul Edward O’Brien on September 2, 1950.
Mary was a loving and caring mother to her six children and the rock of the family, raising the children, working, and keeping the family together. She had many talents: she was an accomplished seamstress, knitter, and crochet expert, creating many beautiful works of art over the years for her family and friends. Mary had a gorgeous voice that comforted her children at night when they were young and filled her church over the years with beautiful hymns. Her gorgeous smile, sparkling blue eyes, and her gift for telling stories and keeping all of the family memories alive charmed everyone who met her.
Mary and her husband, Paul, moved from Brooklyn to Pittsburgh in the 1960s, and they settled in Mt. Lebanon. She worked for many years at the Union National Bank in Mt. Lebanon. In 1979, she moved the family to Harrisburg to work in Social Services, and she became the Outreach Director at St. Catherine Laboure Parish until her retirement in 1989. After her husband’s death in 1989, she moved to Hershey. She volunteered at the Caron Foundation Family Services Division for many years, as well as at the Hershey Museum Children’s Discovery Room, Hershey Medical Center, and St. Joan of Arc CCD program. Mary was a member of the St. Joan’s Rosary Group, as well as an Associate of the Sisters of St. Cyril and Methodius.
Throughout her life, Mary’s happy place was the seashore, from Long Island to the Jersey shore to Bethany Beach, DE. She enjoyed many wonderful family vacations at the beach with her children and grandchildren and spent her later years making a home in Lewes, DE, with her second husband, David Fritz, whom she married in 2001. Mary’s grandchildren were the light of her life, and she found ways to spend special times with each one.
Mary is predeceased by her beloved brothers Austin, Silas, George, and her beloved sister, Virginia, as well as her treasured grandson, Adam. Mary will be dearly missed by her children Kathleen Parsons (Wayne), Paul, George (Carol), Mary DeAngelis, Gigi O’Brien, and Bernadette Miller (Tom). Mary is also survived by the grandchildren she adored: Deitrich (Juliette) and Amanda Parsons, Alexandra Miller Murphy (Rory), Matthew Hudecki, Brian DeAngelis, Ethan and Emerald O’Brien, and great-grandchildren Christopher Brewer and Isabella Parsons. Mary is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews who adored their “Aunt Charlie,” or simply “Aunt Char.”
