Mary Ann Bartol

Mary Ann (Mancel) Bartol 1930-2025 Mary Ann Bartol, age 95, of Miamisburg, passed away July 21st 2021. She was born June 18, 1930 in Wauwatosa, WI to the late Anne and James Mancel. Mary Ann was active in her community in many ways, connecting people, welcoming people, helping people and sharing her special hospitality with people through a meal, a place to stay or a visit. She was a clever, faith filled, creative, community centered and fun loving person. She had a degree in Elementary Education from Marquette University and taught for 3 years in Milwaukee County Schools. Later, in Dayton, she was a substitute teacher for the Centerville School district. She was active in her community leading 4-H and active in the Penbrooke Garden Club. A parishioner at St. Henry’s church, she was active in many ministries including decades as a CCD teacher. In 2015 she and Tom moved to Kettering Health Senior Living-Sycamore Glenn in Miamisburg . She enjoyed fun times with her wonderful neighbors, the “Valley Girls.” Mary Ann was preceded in death by her husband, Tom and daughter Susan (Bartol) Beers. She is survived by her sister, Barbara (Mancel) Ehrett, daughters Kathryn (Gary) Haynes, Patricia (Mark) Stipich, sons James (Chris St. George) Bartol and Thomas (Barbara Moss) Bartol. Also Grandchildren Sarah (Chris) Hohl, Monica (Grant) Fahnhorst, Michael (Christina) Stipich, Daniel (Sara) Stipich, Joseph Stipich, John Stipich, Luke Bartol, Silas Bartol and Great Grandchildren Margot Fahnhorst , Vivían Fahnhorst , and Moira Stipich as well as many nieces and nephews and numerous “adopted” children she took into their home. 

There will be a Mass of Christian Burial on August 22nd at 11:00 at St. Henry Catholic Church in Dayton with burial following at Saint Kateri Preserve in Calvary Cemetery. 

If you would like to contribute to a remembrance of Tom and Mary Ann, we would like to place a bench at Cox Arboretum in their memory. Donations may be made online at https://coxarboretumfoundation.org/bartol-tribute or by mailing a check to Cox Arboretum Foundation 409 E Monument Ave, Third Fl, Dayton, OH 45402 and in the memo of the check notate Bartol. You can also scan the QR code to bring you to the donation site. 

Or consider a donation to Unbound, an organization Tom and Mary Ann supported. Donate at: www.unbound.org 

Some more about Mary Ann’s life from conversations over the past few years: Mary Ann grew up in Wausatosa, Wisconsin. She would walk to elementary school, took the bike to Junior HIgh, then the city bus to high school. She took piano lessons but when she was 6, her dad put new carpeting in the living room and got rid of the old upright piano. He said he would get another piano but never did. Her sister, Barbara, gave her a ukulele because she missed the piano so much. In 9th grade they were looking for kids at school to play either viola or the double bass. They gave her a viola to play while in school and she joined the orchestra and also played in the pit orchestra for musicals. She said she took one viola lesson and didn’t like it and never took another and taught herself how to play. As a child she spent a lot of time with her cousin, Audrey.

When WWII began, she was 14 and her mom told her to get a job. She got a job at a department store, Shusters, and was assigned to the handbag department. She didn’t know anything about handbags. “They put me in the cheap plastic handbag section, $2.98 each and I learned about handbags.” She was paid $0.43/hour, “but Social Security took some of that.” She was well liked by staff and remembered being invited to parties by her coworkers. 

Mary Ann attended Marquette University. She liked the school but only later realized it was the only school she could go to because it was close to home. She lived at home and split tuition with her dad. Tuition would go up but she never wanted to ask her dad for more money so just paid the rest herself.

Going to Marquette she would take the bus to 63rd and Center and there, she would then transfer to the streetcar to take her to school. It was here she met Joan (Klenhenz) who lived on 63rd St. They would catch the bus together. They became longtime friends. Joan’s parents owned a bowling alley and Joan had access to a car. Joan, Ione (Griffin, a Marquette friend) and mom would get together and go driving, singing in the car, then they’d stop for a custard. She said it was “good, clean, fun.” They would sometimes go to one of their houses for a drink. They started drinking daiquiris, “because they were sweet and easy to drink.” Later they liked martinis…but never too many They would go to basketball games “when Marquette had a good basketball team.” They went out a lot but never went with boys, except prom, when “we got each other dates.” They had a lot of fun. She and Joan joined the social sorority, Delta Sigma Epsilon which later became Delta Zeta. 

During college, her mom’s sister got her a summer job at Allen Bradley that paid better. This was a manufacturing company. Her job was to look in a big book to check customer’s credit. She said it was pretty boring. 

Mary Ann graduated from Marquette University with a degree in Elementary Education. After graduation she got a job with Milwaukee County Schools. The first year was harder as they “bused” kids in from the poorer areas and it was mixed grades. The second year she had just 2nd grade. She said that was a good class to teach as the kids were learning to read and could read some. They did all sorts of things she said you could never do now. They got baby ducks and had them in the classroom! “The 6th graders would come and clean up after the ducks.” Eventually they donated the ducks to the Washington Park Zoo. She took the kids on a field trip there to see the ducks. Once she took the whole second grade class (just her) on the streetcar to the post office for a field trip. Back in the classroom, they wrote thank you notes to the post office. They received a nice letter from the post office saying how well behaved her kids were. She worked a 3rd year at the schools and, when she was pregnant, went on maternity leave rather than quitting “so I wouldn’t lose my health insurance.” She left the job in December 1953. 

Mary Ann met her husband, Tom Bartol, at a Christmas party. She had graduated and he was a year behind her, a senior. He was at the party and asked to walk her to the streetcar. She said she was fine walking alone but accepted his offer. He called later and asked her out. 

After they were married, they had an apartment on 72nd street in Wauwatosa. It was the upstairs of a house. The family they rented from would babysit for them. When she was pregnant with Sue, they needed a bigger place to live. Ione and Bob Griffin told them about a subdivision being built in Brown Deer. They looked at it and had a house built. They moved there the fall before Sue was born. She connected with people in this neighborhood including the Johnses, next door, the Gingraso’s were across the street and the Fitzgerald’s on the other side of their house. 

In 1965, Tom got a job in Ohio and the family moved to Dayton. “When we first moved to Dayton, we had a car loaded with a turtle or goldfish!” Doleen Campbell was her first- and long-time close friend who helped her out a lot, showing her where things are around town. Eventually she got to be friends with Donna Peeler, across the street, the Dows next door and Eberts and Wokasiens around the corner. She was always active and doing something in the neighborhood with the Garden Club, leading 4-H, or Bridge Club and other community events. She taught many young women how to cook and sew leading 4-H for many years, taking them on field trips and to the county fair. 

Her faith journey began in childhood, but slowly. Mary Ann went to Sunday mass with her mother weekly. She was baptized but didn’t receive the sacraments. When she went to Marquette University, she took a class for new Catholics. She said that was the first she learned about faith. The following Easter she made her First Holy Communion then went back in the afternoon for confirmation. Her Catholic faith lived on in her and she practiced it, serving others, comforting, welcoming, feeding, teaching, and visiting. If someone was in need, she was there, babysitting, being a listening ear, giving someone a place to stay. 

There are fond memories of many people at St. Henry’s. She remembers Fr. VonHolly vaguely, he was nice, was big. Fr Gilligan it took some time to get to know but they became good friends. He came from St. Charles Parish and brought with him Sr. Joanne who was her age and they built a strong bond. She began teaching catechism classes as a way to get back into teaching after having children. Even in her later years she would watch mass every morning on TV. She never stopped praying.

 As friends in the neighborhood left and new people moved in, Mary Ann welcomed them, making new friends and getting people involved. She and Tom became the elders of the neighborhood and had many “adopted” children and grandchildren.

 A lover of plants, you could find her working in her gardens, refusing to houseplants or volunteering at Cox Arboretum. To her final day she had a basement full of house plants she tended (with Patty’s help). 

Holidays and seasons always had special decorations in her house. Family and friends might receive cards not just at Christmas but for St. Patrick’s Day or Thanksgiving Halloween. She loved to celebrate and to remember people on their birthdays. In 2015 Tom and Mary Ann downsized from their Fox Run Road house and moved to the retirement community in Miamisburg. They found a perfect house with a daylight basement for plants and a woods in the back yard. She “taught” the workers there to correctly mulch and care for the landscaping while keeping her flower gardens going (with more of Patty’s help). Developing a community of close-knit neighbors was the highlight of living on Sycamore Valley. There were parties for all seasons. Neighbors helped each other, visited and played and laughed h together. Without them, she wouldn’t have been able to live in her home until age 95. Janice, Doug and Jeannette, the Applegates and all the neighbors were such a special part of her last 10 years. The ladies called themselves, “The Valley Girls” and would have special gatherings and activities. They were there for her until the day she died. 

There’s much more that can be said about Mary Ann…keep saying it! What is shared here is an attempt at accuracy but more an attempt to share more about Mary Ann based on the sometimes-changing stories she told. Let the stories continue as she lives on in our lives!