Mary Norris Porter Frese

1922 - 2019

Mary Norris Porter Frese of Annapolis, Maryland, died on August 12, 2019, at BayWoods of Annapolis in Annapolis, Maryland. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 3, 1922, and was the daughter of the late Rear Admiral Robert Lee and Mary Benedict Norris Porter. While her father was stationed at the United States Naval Academy, she graduated from Annapolis High School ('40) and Georgetown Visitation Junior College ('42). After graduating from Georgetown Visitation she studied interior design under her mentor, Genevieve Hendricks. On June 21, 1942 she married Bernard William Frese, Jr., at the United States Naval Academy Chapel, and raised their three children in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She was a devout Roman Catholic. While her children attended Ursuline Academy in Bethesda, Maryland, she did volunteer work for the Ursuline Sisters, and Georgetown Visitation in Washington, D.C. She is survived by one daughter, Elizabeth Norris Frese of Washington, DC; three grandchildren, Mary Porter Peschka of Washington, D.C., Patrick Finney Peschka, and his wife Billie Lynn Peschka of Paradise, Texas, and Susan Elizabeth Frese of Orlando, Florida; three great-grandsons, Connor, Collin and Peyton; and great-granddaughter, Madeline Elizabeth. She was preceded in death by her husband, Captain Bernard William Frese, Jr.; her daughter, Mary Porter Frese Peschka, and son, Bernard William Frese, III; her sister, Dorothy Mercedes Porter Leese, her brothers, Robert Norris Porter; Thomas Norris Porter; and David Norris Porter. One of the highlights of her life was being invited to serve as Matron of Honor at the christening and launching of The Carl Vinson (CVN-70), third Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.