Logiudice, Marialyce (Mary)

LOUDONVILLE- Marialyce (Mary) Lasch LoGiudice 85, passed from this world peacefully on Saturday, January 30th after a prolonged and gracious struggle with dementia. Mary was born in Albany on August 1, 1930 to Edward and Mary (O’Brien) Lasch. She attended Vincentian Institute and Albany Business College and worked as a legal secretary at the law firm DeGraff, Foy, Conway and Holt-Harris before starting a family. During this period, she also played trumpet in the Albany Symphony, sparking a life-long interest in music.

Mary met the love of her life, Joseph LoGiudice, at a Catholic Young Adult League meeting and they were married on February 11th, 1956. Mary and Joe enjoyed 52 wonderful years of marriage until his death in 2008. Together, they raised five daughters in a household full of love, laughter, chaos and song.Mary and Joe were parishioners at Holy Cross Church and raised their family in Albany’s Hawthorne Avenue neighborhood, where they made many cherished friends.

Mary was a naturalist and an environmentalist throughout her life. Her love of nature included birding, canoeing, and walks in the woods. Mary was very civic-minded; as a young woman, she fought to preserve Albany’s Rosemont Street Park from development, and it remains an asset to the city today . In the early 1970s when Dutch Elm disease had decimated the trees in her neighborhood, Mary convinced Mayor Erastus Corning to replace them with oak saplings. He agreed, and she could be seen many evenings driving around in her station wagon to care for and water dozens of trees that continue to grace the neighborhood.

Mary served on the Board of Friends of Five Rivers Environmental Center for many yearsand greatly enjoyed volunteering there. She was a founding member of the Bethlehem Work on Waste, a group that successfully opposed the building of a garbage incinerator on the shores of the Hudson River, and sought to encourage recycling and alternative means of waste disposal. Mary’s efforts on the behalf of the environment earned her the nick-name ‘Mary Tree’ and her contributions will continue to benefit the community into the future.

Mary’s kind, generous and patient nature endured throughout her life. She will be remembered for her infectious laugh, her warmth and the pleasure she took in simple joys. Always a friend to the elderly , she was, in her old age, helped by many, and her family is grateful for the loving care from her friends, old and new, especially Pat Hartman.

Survivors include her five daughters, Susan (Nick Burnett), Kathleen (John Blanchard), Patrice Delehanty (Russell Stryker), Marialyce Lyons (Christopher), and Elizabeth (Ross Burnell.) Mary was devoted to and will be greatly missed by her beloved brothers Frank (Mary Ellen) Lasch and Edward (Catherine) Lasch. Mary is also survived by her sister-in-law Sister Mary Ann LoGiudice, RSM, with whom she had an especially close and loving relationship. Mary was the cherished grandmother of Michael and Joseph Long, Kalin Scott, (Jeffery) Nicholas and Kathryn Delehanty, and Faye, Therese and Marialyce Lyons, and great-grandmother to Isabel Scott. She is also survived by her sister-in-law Carmela Couser, and her brother-in- law Santo LoGiudice. She was predeceased by her niece Barbara, son-in-law Kevin Delehanty and sister-in-law Constance Pfister. She will be missed by her large and loving extended family and many wonderful friends .

A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. at the Convent of Mercy Chapel, 634 New Scotland Avenue, Albany. Friends are invited to call at the chapel from 9:30-10:30 a.m. prior to the Mass. Interment will be immediately following the funeral at Saint Agnes Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations to Friends of Five Rivers, 56 Game Farm Road, Delmar, NY 12054, [url=http://www.friendsoffiverivers.org]http://www.friendsoffiverivers.org[/url] would be appreciated.