Mary Louise Frankel

Tucson - Mary Louise Campe Frankel passed away on July 9, 2025, at the age of 89, after a courageous entanglement with dementia, displaying grace and fortitude until her final days. Mary Lou is survived by her loving and devoted husband of 68 years, Mark Edward Frankel. She is also survived by her four sons, Mark (Kate), David (Nancy), Scott (Kim), and Lee (Lorena); her ten grandchildren who affectionately knew her as Nunu, Kate Awbrey (Todd), Jeffrey Frankel (Megan), Alden Frankel (Nicole), William Frankel, Kristel Hansmann, Christian Hansmann, Ryan Frankel, Adele Frankel, Eric Frankel, Julia Frankel; two great grandchildren, Maren and Callie Awbrey; her brother Geoffry, sister Jill, and stepsister Lois; and many more relatives and friends.

Mary Lou was born on May 1, 1936, to Marjorie Neikrug (Mayer) and Gerald Campe at Columbia Presbyterian in New York City. She grew up in Connecticut on a gentleman farm and later moved to a Manhattan brownstone on the Upper East Side with her Mom, brother and sister. She graduated high school from Riverdale Country Day School, where she first met Mark in her junior year. She went on to attend Sarah Lawrence College and earned a degree in Early Primary Education. She was a modern dancer and played field hockey.

She married Mark in 1957 in her senior year of college. She commuted between the Bronx and Princeton during their first year of marriage. She was a first-grade teacher for four years after her graduation, supporting her husband while he attended medical school in Rochester, New York. In their summer after their second year, they traveled through Europe on $5/day, inspired by the popular Frommer's travel guide. For transportation around Europe for nine weeks they bought a Sunbeam Alpine convertible, the only sports car with roll up windows in 1960, a necessity to brave the Rochester New York winters. In the summer after their third year, the two traveled to Ghana where she volunteered as a physician's assistant to a mid-wife and helped start a neo-natal clinic in the village where they were missionaries.

As Mark finished his training as an orthopedic surgeon, Mary Lou set up homes in Baltimore, MD, Durham, NC, Greenville, SC, and Tucson, AZ, where they ultimately settled. The family eventually expanded during those years to include four sons.

In Tucson, after raising her children, she worked at the University of Arizona Athletic Department for 10 years in various roles in fundraising and special events, including game management of the Tucson Copper Bowl. She became involved in many community projects, joining the Board of the Tucson Children's Museum, the Tanque Verde Neighborhood Association, driving the establishment of the Saint Andrew's Nogales Children's Clinic and the local chapter of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Of her many joys, Mary Lou loved escaping the desert heat of summer by traveling to Hawaii to her residence on the Big Island where she hosted her children and grandchildren for decades. She was an avid daily ocean swimmer, played 18 holes of golf, then played tennis, all in the same day. Her friends there affectionately dubbed her a tri-athlete for these accomplishments. She was an avid gardener and was passionate about raising animals on her small ranch at the base of the Rincon Mountains. At various times, there were 4 dogs, 4 cats, 2 horses, 1 pig, and 100 Suffolk sheep that she cared for as breeding stock. At night, coyotes howled, and during the day snakes, jack rabbits, birds, tarantulas and javelina were frequent guests; having a big sky overhead, land and animals had always been her dream as a city girl.

Mary Lou held herself and those around her to the highest standards. She was a strong personality with deep reservoirs of love. No amount of gratitude can repay the kindness of the staff at Brookdale Oro Valley for the care and dignity they provided Mary Lou in the last few years. Mary Lou will be buried at East Lawn Palms Mortuary in Tucson, Arizona on August 9, 2025. Her family also encourages, for those inclined or in lieu of flowers, donations in her honor to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.