Mary Rita Lencioni

Mary Rita Lencioni was born on December 4, 1937, and she lived until December 6th, 2022. She died of cancer at the age of 85. She was born in Chicago and grew up on the South Side. Her parents were originally from Italy. They owned an ice cream shop known as the “Wig-Wam” and the building. Mary had fond memories of growing up with her siblings in the ice cream parlor and this no doubt fueled her life-long love of ice cream. 

Mary graduated from Our Lady of Sorrows High School, attended Mundelein College, and graduated from Rosary College (now Dominican University) with a degree in Chemistry. At the time, it was rare for women to pursue a degree in science and there were only a couple of other women in her class. As a young professional her title was “patent literature scientist”. After marriage, she was a stay-at-home Mom to her 3 children Gian, Laura, and Andrew. 

When she divorced in the 1980’s she went back to school for her teaching certificate so she could have the same schedule as her children. She spent a short time teaching middle school at St. Williams and then spent more than a decade teaching chemistry and Trinity High School in River Forest, where her daughter Laura attended. She loved teaching and sharing her enthusiasm for science with the next generation of young women. After she left teaching, she was an Executive Assistant and Human Resources Professional at Heartland Food Corporation until she retired. 

In her free time, Mary loved nothing better than to read a good book, and was well-read on topics such as science, science fiction, philosophy, religion, language, history, nature, fiction, etc. Her passion for reading and learning was passed down to her children and grandchildren. She also loved hobbies such as crochet, lace collecting, sewing, cooking, gardening, painting, and drawing. She was a devout Catholic and a proud Italian American.  Mary will be remembered most for her kindness, patience, gentleness, devotion to family, her faith, intelligence, her love of learning, and love of teaching. 

Mary has joined her parents Assunta and Silvio and her siblings Livia, Cecil, Livio, and Donald in eternal rest. She is the last of her siblings to be laid to rest.  She is survived by her children Gian, Laura, and Andrew and grandchildren Melissa, Victor, and Josef.

Visitation will be on Friday, December 16th from 4-8 pm at Salerno Galewood Chapels, Chicago. Friends and family will meet at St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in River Forest for Mass of Christian Burial at 10 am Saturday morning December 17th . The funeral procession will leave from the church parking lot after mass and proceed to Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside.