Mary Noreña

1937 - 2021

Mary Noreña
September 11, 1937 - March 7, 2021
Scotts Valley
Mary Isabelle Noreña, née Wells, died on Sunday, March 7, at the age of 83. In public she was quiet, cautious, and demure. But family and friends knew and cherished her other side: playful, irreverent, and more often than not the life of the party. In all settings she was kind and loving. She will be deeply missed.
Born in San Diego in 1937, she grew up in a working-class neighborhood and, on occasion, "ran with the wrong crowd" (in her own words). Her first marriage was a brief and unhappy one, but it did give her a beautiful daughter, Victoria, with whom she always had a very close relationship.
The event that transformed her life forever was meeting the man who would become her second husband, Carlos Noreña (it transformed his life, too). They were an unlikely couple: she an American, he a Spaniard (who always called her "Maria"); she without a complete high-school education and he with multiple advanced degrees; she in her mid 20s and he in his late 30s. And yet they each held the key that unlocked the other's happiness and they enjoyed a famously loving marriage for 47 years.
They moved to Santa Cruz in 1967. Three years later they had a son, Carlos, upon whom she cheerfully doted as a "stay-at-home" mom. Later she began volunteering for the Santa Cruz Volunteer Center, and was soon hired as the center's office manager, a position she held for over twenty years. Because she cared so deeply about the poor, marginalized, and downtrodden, this job was always much more to her than just an occupation and a paycheck. In her free time, she enjoyed reading novels, traveling on beach vacations, rooting for the Oakland Raiders, having a nice drink, and listening to music. In the perennial debate between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, she was emphatically a "Stones person," and was known to enliven polite academic dinner parties by turning down the lights, turning up the volume, and getting everyone to dance.
The deaths of her husband (2011) and daughter (2017) were devastating blows for her. But she was always appreciated and loved by the rest of her family, who will never forget her gentle soul and infectious laugh.
She is survived by her son and daughter in law Elizabeth; by five grandchildren (Elizabeth, Nicole, and Carlos Rubio, and Carlos and Felix Noreña); and by three great-grandchildren (Eva, Waylon, and Jaylen).
A memorial celebrating her life will be held later in the spring.


View the online memorial for Mary Noreña