Mary Diane Bail

1944 - 2010

Mary Diane Bail, 65, of Thousand Oaks, passed peacefully away with family and friends at her side on Saturday, April 24.

Mary was born to the late Dr. Thomas J. Anglem and Mary Elizabeth Gorman-Anglem on July 28, 1944, in Boston, Mass. She lived in Brookline, Mass., as a young girl and then moved to Squantum, Mass., at the age of five. She loved living in Squantum due to its location right in Quincy Bay. She frequently told stories of sailing her boat.

She attended Squantum Elementary School and then North Quincy High School for junior high, followed by attending Thayer Academy for high school. Mary attended Northwestern University and graduated with a B.A. in English. While attending Northwestern, she was invited to join the group MENSA yet declined politely.

She moved to New Orleans in 1968 and ended up living with her sister Marcia in 1968 and then moved to Denver, Colo., in 1970 where she met her loving and devoted husband Don in 1972. Don was a newly transplanted FBI agent placed in Denver after completing the Academy at Quantico. Mary worked in the pathology department of Denver Children's Hospital.

Don and Mary were married in 1973 in Denver and subsequently transferred by the FBI to Chicago, Ill., in April of 1974. They remained in Chicago until Don was transferred by the FBI again to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. In 1980, the family happily moved to Southern California into the Los Angeles area, which was Don's hometown. In 1981 Don and Mary bought their final home in a small but growing lovely town in Southern California called Thousand Oaks. Don continued working as an FBI agent and eventually retired after many years as a Supervisory Special Agent in the Counterterrorism Division.

Mary worked as an executive assistant for the Chief of the Department of Medicine at UCLA for many years. She astounded many people by remaining in this job for such a long while and for getting along with the Doctor who was the Division Chief as he had a rather scary reputation. Mary was secretly known as "The Lion Tamer" while she was his assistant. While still his assistant and shortly prior to leaving UCLA she wrote and produced a play which depicted the Department of Medicine in the silly way in which she viewed it at times. It was shown in an auditorium of UCLA with multiple showings and Mary received an award from UCLA for its creation. One rather brave chance Mary took while creating this play was deciding that she was going to portray her boss, Dr. David Solomon, and she had a medical resident portray her as his assistant who was called "the Lion Tamer" in the play. Needless to say, the production was a hit.

Mary was indeed a talented lion tamer A short while after Mary left UCLA to stay home to be with her children, "The Lion", AKA Dr. David Solomon, had moved into the rather new field of Geriatric Medicine and was elected as the editor of their journal called JAGS. He asked if Mary would work as his managing editor and she accepted since she did almost all of the work at home. Mary and Dr. Solomon successfully edited the journal for many years and formed a relationship that was originally a working one only but it eventually turned into a friendship. Dr. Solomon could not resist Mary's wonderful sense of humor and actually told her that if she weren't so funny, he'd have fired her long ago.

Mary and "The Lion" remained good friends over many years and began going out socially more recently when Dr. Solomon and his wife moved to Thousand Oaks. Dr. Solomon was incredibly helpful when Mary became ill and was an almost constant presence toward her last days. Her family listed him as family on the chart so he could visit Mary whenever he chose to. It was indeed a beautiful friendship that her family is truly thankful for.

Mary was referred by Dr. Solomon after he retired from JAGS to another wonderful Geriatrician named Dr. Dan Osterweil. She worked as his managing editor for a new journal that they got off the ground and into Mediline and the ISI database which is quite a feat for a new journal. Mary was incredibly proud when that goal was achieved. Dr.O was a bit of a lion himself at times but by now, Mary was an expert lion tamer! Interestingly, one day Dan began laughing at something Mary said in his office and told her she was so funny and that if she wasn't so funny, he believes he would have had to fire her long ago. Mary seemed to have what it took to work well with both of these well known UCLA physicians as both of them were friends of Mary's right until her last days.

Dr. O also visited the hospital, had long talks with Mary and aided her family when deciding on certain medical choices and recommending what path he believed Mary wished to take as she grew increasingly ill. This helped the family immensely when faced with some very difficult decisions. Dan will no doubt be a lifelong family friend.

Mary is survived by her loving and devoted husband, Don; a daughter, Julia; a son, Thomas and his wife, Sam. She is also survived by three sisters, Marcia, Ruth and Judy, and a brother, Thomas. She had loving nieces, Linda, Mary L., Lisa and a nephew, John. Additionally, she had the chance to get to meet her grandniece, Mary L's daughter, Jordan. Mary had innumerable friends but most notably was survived by her Best Friend, Jo, and her husband, Charley, who are Julia and Tom's godparents and most certainly will fulfill that role in its most traditional sense, and her wonderful college pal Susan. She had a sister-in-law, Kathryn; mother-in-law, Margaret, and a niece, Krystyn. Of great importance to Mary throughout her life were her pets. She is currently survived by her loving Chocolate Labrador, Lilly, and a 20 year old cat named Grady.

Mary and Don were always adored by their children's good friends that were always around. Some of these children sort of "adopted" her as their mother even though they already had one. These kids either spent many hours with Mary and Don at their home or actually lived there at one point. They called her Mom or something close like West coast mom The following children adopted Mary and Don as their second set of parents: Joseph Cusmano in Utah and four grandchildren, Dakota, Kioa , Joseph Jr. and Brendan. As well as having their Northwestern daughter, Lisa, and East Coast daughter, Maureen and granddaughter, Elise and grandson, Kyle Jr.

Some Family that will also miss Mary greatly are wonderful friends Keith and Linda who began as neighbors about 30 years ago but are definitely family now and not considered neighbors at all. Mary greatly enjoyed seeing the White's children grow up-- sons Brian, Jeff, Andrew and Adam. She considered Andrew and Adam community babies and then kids as they were frequently being babysat by Mary or her daughter or picked up at school by her many times in their lives. She loved teaching them to read and helping them with many homework assignments. The Whites were there with Mary and her family consistently until the end and have been incredible friends to the family for nearly 30 years. They continue their wonderful kindness today with the family that Mary leaves behind. It is without a doubt, Mary is less worried about her family being without her because of friends like the Whites who have always been there for her family and she is certain they will continue this tradition.

Mary will be missed by so many people who were amazed by her continuous sense of humor and quick wit which she maintained throughout her illness. Also amazing was her strength and determination no matter what the obstacle was that was placed in front of her. Mary's talents could fill many pages but the last one to be mentioned here was her great love for the word game Scrabble. She regularly talked her daughter, Julia, into getting annihilated and beat Julia each and every time. Mary knew words nobody on the planet had ever heard of but it was terribly dangerous to challenge her as it was always in the dictionary. Even during her last game when she certainly wasn't feeling at all well, she (Mary, of course) managed to beat Julia again for one last time. This was despite Mary picking nearly all vowels the entire game. Julia had a Q on her tray that she knew would be her demise and it was. At the end of the game, it was added to Mary's score and Julia lost the game, yet again.

Mary was a true gem of a person. We have no doubt she has gone on to Heaven where she will experience a much better life with God and other loved ones that have passed on before her. It is our sincere hope that they have been practicing their scrabble games because it is without a doubt, that in between her Guardian Angel duties and whatever else God has planned for her now that she is with him, she will be challenging all her friends both new and old in Heaven to Scrabble Games.

In Lieu of Flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the Ovarian Cancer Coalition of California. Please list under her name, PO Box 90035, Studio City, CA 91614. A Memorial Service will be held at 12 noon on Saturday, May 1, at Ascension Lutheran Church. Interment will follow immediately after the service and then there will be a reception at 1654 Sweet Briar Place, Thousand Oaks, CA 91362.

Arrangements under the direction of Griffin Family Funeral Chapels, Thousand Oaks, 230-2800.