Mary Rita Ann Nania

NORTH CANAAN — Mary Rita Ann Nania of Granite Avenue, and a resident of Geer for the last four years, died July 8, 2012, five months short of her 95th birthday, of natural causes. She was not a native of the Northwest Corner. Her parents, Camille Albert Pothier and Genevieve Veronica Kelly, met and married in Rhode Island in 1915, but two years later, her father, who had learned the art of dyeing textiles from his father, was offered a job as foreman of a Troy, N.Y., textile plant. Mary was born on Dec. 6, 1917, in Troy. A decade later, while she was still in grade school, her father was engaged as a “consultant” to set up the new dyeing machines at the textile mill in Great Barrington, and the family moved into a rented house on the site of what is now Berkshire Bank on Main Street. She loved Great Barrington but, a year later, her dad got a new assignment, and the family moved back to Rhode Island, where her father had been hired as foreman at the Bradford Dyeing Association in Bradford, R.I.The family really didn’t want to move again; but her mother made an offer on the 77-acre Diamond Hill Farm in nearby Ashaway, R.I., before her father even had a chance to see it.Mary was enrolled in the college course at Westerly High School, played side-center on the girls basketball team and attended the University of Rhode Island. She left college during World War II to work as an inspector of airplane propellers at Hamilton Standard. She found more defects than her boss wanted. She also made a friend at work who introduced her to the man she would marry.During the course of the war, Mary overheard a phone conversation while using a party line telephone and gave information to the FBI that led to the arrest of a German spy — the cook at a Westerly inn.On Nov. 25, 1943, she married S. Joseph Nania — a Yale College graduate, a concert violinist who had lost his hearing and the music supervisor in the Stonington, Conn., school system. They had five children in the next 10 years and lived in an apartment in Pawcatuck, Conn. In early 1955, her husband got a phone call from Bill Meader, a friend and classmate at Yale. There was an opening for a music teacher at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. He got the job, and in August 1955 the family bought its first house, in North Canaan. Three years later, Joseph Nania died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving Mary a widow with five children, the oldest of whom was 13. Though tempted to move back to Rhode Island and the support of an extended family, Mary decided that the Northwest Corner would be a better place to raise her children. She found what would become an 18-year job as a teller at the then-Canaan National Bank. She also worked at a number of part-time jobs, once serving as a reporter for The Lakeville Journal. Mary was active in the community. She was a charter member of both the town Recreation Committee and Civil Defense Team. She helped organize and served as president of North Canaan’s Little Theater Group. She and her brothers were avid tennis players in their early years. In middle age, she tried to learn to play golf, but after several lessons, the pro gently suggested she consider another sport. She won trophies at the Geer Fishing Derbies for the largest trout caught and for the most trout caught. She had both knees replaced in her late 60s, one of which was again replaced when she was 84. She drove a car till she was 91 and never had an accident, though she did have numerous speeding tickets. She was a cook who sold her pies to a local restaurant and a mother and grandmother who baked the cookies, cakes and pizzas her children and grandchildren will never forget.She was ever generous and giving and never really considered or accepted the fact that she herself was poor. She regularly contributed from what little she had to all she thought to be in need and passionately defended any she considered to be downtrodden. She took in and became the legal guardian of a high school girl whose parents had both died suddenly.Mary Nania should principally be remembered, however, for her strength of spirit. Despite the many challenges to health and well-being she was served, she never weakened. With firm resolve, faith in God and the unfailing help and encouragement of her sister-in-law, Mary A. Nania, and other friends and neighbors, she paid off the mortgage and shepherded all five of her children from school and college to careers, marriages and families of their own.She was predeceased by her parents and her brothers, Camille and Gerard Pother; and her son, Peter P. Nania. She is survived by her sons, Anthony J. Nania of Falls Village and Gerard F. Nania of Old Saybrook, Conn.; her daughters, Tomassina (Nania) Panepinto of Altamont, N.Y., and Maria (Nania) Stillman of Brooklyn, N.Y.; two sons-in-law, William Panepinto of Altamont and Richard Stillman of Brooklyn; two daughters-in-law, Lynn (Clayton) Nania of Falls Village and Diane (Grady) Nania of Old Saybrook; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Arrangements are under the care of the Newkirk Palmer Funeral Home in North Canaan. A Mass of Christian burial will be held at St. Joseph’s Church on Friday, July 13, at 11 a.m. Though flowers are also welcome, contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to the Northwest Corner Chore Service.