Mary "Mimi" Jeanne Baca

Mary Jeanne "Mimi" (Bolger) Baca

On June 21st, 2024, after a beautiful evening with her daughter under the summer solstice's strawberry moon, full of handholding, loving whispers, tender forehead kisses, readings of People Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the poems she kept in her heart for a lifetime, after hearing that the beauty outside her window would be worth checking out, Mimi left her body behind and took flight. She was 85 years old.

Born September 6th, 1938 in Toledo, Ohio to Madalyn "Gigi" Mercier Bolger and Raphael Edward "Ray" Bolger, she was baptized Mary Jeanne Ann Bolger, but known to all as "Mimi." Her two younger sisters, Marge and Brenna, completed the Bolger trio.

Mimi remembered growing up in Toledo fondly: making mud pies, riding bikes, participating in Brownies, taking eleven years of ballet, playing competitive basketball, play-filled Sundays after church with cousins at Aunt Rose's, summers in Irish Hills, Michigan, and reading book after book (all biographies) so she would have the most stars by her name on the board at Kent Library. On Thursday nights, if she got all her homework done, she rode the bus on her own to the movies, then spent Friday telling everyone about what she saw. She even taught herself how to knit, crochet, and make curtains and aprons.

She attended Ursula & Rosary Academy, and then Central Catholic High School from 1952-56. At Central Catholic Junior League she met her lifelong friend Larry Phund. She worked for the City Recreation Department as a camp counselor, recreation supervisor, and basketball teacher, at the college sales shop, and at Steins department store as a display assistant.

Mimi loved language, from ad copy to poetry. She loved to read it, to write it, to speak it. She'd wake before the sun to get the first edition of the Toledo Blade, then read it to her mother as she made dinner. Her first job was at the downtown Toledo Library repairing books. She wrote a gossip column for the high school paper. In high school, she was chosen by Junior Achievement to speak to an audience of one thousand people, and she performed in many plays including The San Jose Theatre Guild's production of Auntie Mame in 1962, alongside her mother and father. As early as high school, she was interested in marketing, cutting out periodical ads she particularly liked or disliked. She memorized dozens of poems and was always ready to recite them. She attended the University of Toledo, majoring in speech and drama, minoring in English and art, and Mary Manse College where she studied psychology.

In 1959, at age twenty-one, she took a trip by train with her Aunt Rose to visit her cousin Phyllis in Palo Alto, California. On the way she sang, "Why, oh why, oh why oh / Why did I ever leave Ohio?" She found her answer in a Palo Alto cigar store carrying eight different local newspapers. She promptly called her mother to say she had found the promised land and was never coming back. Her mom and sisters promptly packed up and joined her in the Bay Area.

Once settled on the west coast, Mimi continued her education, studying communications, marketing, and business at San Jose State and Santa Clara University. She went to work for Western Surety Bonds (60-63) as an underwriter and bonds coder, then Underwriters Laboratories (63-72) as a division supervisor and star on the company bowling team. She worked at Coakley Heagerty (72-75) as a consumer & market researcher, setting up account budgets and filing systems, and developing voice commercials. She worked as a record analyst at Margolis, Chatzky, and Dunnet law firm (75-77). Then, in 1977, she entered the most satisfying period of her career, helping her sister Brenna build PRx, an upstart public relations and marketing firm in the heart of Silicon Valley.

In nearly a quarter century as an account manager at PRx, she led campaigns and planned events, charming clients and colleagues alike with her sharp wit and creative problem solving. She did award winning work for an eclectic set of clients, including the San Jose Cleveland Ballet, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Bamboola, Robbie Knievel, Steve Wozniak, Billie Jean King, the Smothers Brothers, USA Sumo Wrestling, Avon's Women Marathon, Pac 10 Rowing Championships, Twin Creeks Sport Complex, Highway 85 & 101 opening, Watsonville Antique Air Show and Fly-In. She also arranged national book tours for several authors and created long-running events including The Great Race and the Redwood Shore Triathlon. She was also proud of helping to bring more great talent to PRx as part of the firm's hiring team.

She won the Press Club award for a human interest story on the Watsonville Antique Air Show, a Public Relations Society of America award for a story about a eighty year old man running from San Francisco to Los Gatos in 1999, a National Marketing Award for the introduction of Bamboola, which also won International Association of Business Communicators award for "Best Press Kit" in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was especially proud that her marketing skills and campaigns were referenced in national college textbooks: Effective Publicity and From Landgrant to Landmark, and that she once managed to scare daredevil Evel Knievel when she drove him across town.

Beyond her busy day job, she poured her considerable energy into serving her community. She volunteered as an art Instructor at Alum Rock School, Cupertino School, and the Santa Clara County Children's Shelter. She was one of the founders of Career Closet of Santa Clara, which provides free professional clothing for women.

She lectured on marketing and media relations strategies at De Anza College, Santa Clara University, and San Jose State University. She mentored students starting careers in marketing and later taught poetry at Palomar College.

She served as a judge at many competitions, including the California International Young Artists Competition, the California State Talent Competition in San Jose, and the Coast Forensic League (California High School Speech Association).

She served on the board of the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce, Cupertino Architecture Site Approval Commission, Bill Wilson Center, Santa Clara Musical Theatre, Santa Clara Architectural Review Board, The Women's Fund, SBC Public Relations Roundtable, San Jose Flamenco Society, City Light Theater Co, Publicity chair for International Special Events Society. She was a member of Santa Clara Toastmasters, Steering Committee of Friends Chapter 54, Junior Achievement Alumni Group, Philanthropy council of North County San Diego and The Press Club of North County San Diego.

She was even a guest DJ on KLIV in San Jose a couple times!

In 1970, she married architect Hector Libby Baca and was married for five years.

Her longest, most challenging, and most rewarding job began in 1973 when her daughter, Kathleen Elisabeth "Keli" Baca, was born. She was a warm, supportive, hard working single mother, and an ace editor of Keli's school papers. In 1993, she was promoted to grandmother when Sage Campbell Dietrich was born, offering invaluable support when Keli was a young mother. Sage's birth brought Mimi and Keli closer together like never before, as they watched each other grow into their roles of mother and grandmother, talking daily and going to dinner and the movies every Friday.

In 2001, Mimi retired and relocated to Lawrence Welk's Champagne Village in Escondido, California, though to call what happened next "retirement" is misleading. At Champagne Village, she worked as much as ever, starting a water aerobics group, the new resident welcome wagon, the holiday home tour, the garden tour, the veteran's dinner, and compiled the vets remembrance book each year. She did marketing for Interfaith Community Service, chaired Entertainment for Serenity House, and was on the promotions committee for Escondido Downtown Business Association. She made many new friends, joined the community choir and Lion's Club, and was grand master of the annual 4th of July golf cart parade. She wrote scores of letters and sent large manila envelopes full of carefully curated periodical clippings to her loved ones. Keli and Sage visited often for birthdays, holidays, and summers.

She loved this period of her life, and spoke so highly of North County San Diego that Sage moved to the area for college. While there, he paid her regular visits, cracking her up just like his mom would.

In Mimi's final decade, she moved back to Palo Alto to be closer to family, bringing her California journey full circle. In 2020, the birth of her second grandchild, Genevieve "Gigi" Grijalva, offered a ray of light in the dark days of the pandemic. An eternal optimist, she stayed focused on the sun shining and the birds singing out her window, even as health problems accumulated. Long after she lost her mobility, she held on to her infectious laugh and her gentle, self-deprecating humor. Long after she lost most of her memory, she could still sing the songs of John Denver and recite the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson she committed to heart as a child.

Her happiest moments were spent with family and friends: her beloved mother, her strong, independent sisters, a daughter who always made her laugh, a witty son in law, a grandson who did the best impressions of her, a granddaughter who sang and danced for her, and a granddog Retha whose head on her lap lifted her spirits.

Mimi once wrote that she would like to be remembered as a creative problem solver who made people laugh. She accomplished the former throughout her brilliant career, and the latter throughout her energetic life. If her biting wit didn't get you laughing, then her infectious laugh surely would, with its machine gun cadence and the way she'd furiously rub her own triceps when she got really excited. Or perhaps she'd get you giggling with the endearingly corny way she'd pose for photos - tossing her head across her shoulder or resting it daintily on a beauty school fist. Even if you were laughing at her, you were always laughing with her: she loved a good ribbing, roast or impersonation, bravely sitting in the front at the many stand-up comedy shows she attended.

She will also be remembered for the genuine interest she took in other people's lives, as if she was always working on a biography, like the ones she devoured in her youth. She would subject any remotely interesting person to an impromptu interview, rattling off a dozen questions and declaring their answers "fascinating." Once you had answered, you remained in her thoughts. The enduring image of Mimi will be her sitting in a recliner by the window, with morning toast and tea, watching the birds flutter around the big tree, armed with her phone, a pen she can't find, a stack of newspapers - the finished ones strewn at her feet - and scissors searching for the perfect article to cut out and send to someone special, maybe even you.

Mimi is survived by her daughter Keli Grijalva, son in law Ruben Grijalva, grandson Sage Dietrich, granddaughter Genevieve "Gigi" Grijalva, sister Brenna Bolger, niece Kristin Bosetti, grand niece Ollie, and fabulous friends Shirley Murphy and Larry Phund.

For Mimi, the long journey is over. As Shirley Murphy said, when her difficult last days stretched on and on: of course she won't leave easily, she is a lover of life. In that spirit, we will hold a celebration of life for Mimi the weekend of August 3rd. For details, contact Keli at mimi.j.baca@gmail.com