In loving memory of
Mary Frances Owens Kressin
1931 – 2022
Our loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Mary Frances Owens Kressin, peacefully went home to the Lord on June 19, 2022, at the age of 90.
Mary was an only child to Bill and Frances Owens.
Though you would rarely meet a humbler person, she grew up in Edina, Minnesota in a country club community. Mary was an only child, but was very close to her many, many cousins and considered them siblings.
Mary was a good student, but also excelled in sports like softball, which was unusual for girls of that era. She was involved in drama, even gaining membership in the National Thespian Society while in high school.
After university, Mary starred in a local TV show in Minneapolis, reading books to children…..a precursor to today’s zoom classrooms!
Mary attended Catholic school growing up and so continued her education at St. Catherine’s College, majoring in Library Science.
Her time at “St. Kate’s” was incredibly special to her. She often commented that one advantage of going to an all-women’s college was that a woman’s opinion was never diminished by a professor deferring to a male student’s opinion. Another advantage was that you could wear curlers in your hair to class and no one minded!
Mary was very well traveled. She traveled to many big cities in the U.S. and even Taxco de Alarcon, Mexico’s silver capital, with her parents. She traveled to Europe twice on St. Kate trips, making many memories with her dear friends, and stayed very involved in the St. Catherine alumni group.
After the children were raised, she also had fantastic trips with Tom to Cabo, Guatemala, Canada, and even Singapore!
After university, Mary was hired as a Worthington school librarian. Since each school in those days did not have a school library, Mary drove a huge bookmobile all throughout the district even in snowy winters.
Tom often joked that she needed to join the teamster union. She worked as a children’s librarian until she married.
In the late 1950s, Mary went on a blind date organized by her cousin Helen. There she met the love of her life, Tom. They married in 1959 and began growing their family right away.
They moved to Torrance, California from Minnesota following Tom’s job. Within 8 years, Mary had given birth to 6 children. Mary and Tom celebrated by going out to dinner the day the cloth diaper pail was thrown away!
As the family grew, Tom and Mary needed to move to bigger homes. From Torrance, they moved to 2 different homes in Palos Verdes, and then on to Carlsbad.
Wherever they lived, Mary made the house into a home. Mary was a devoted mother to her children, never thinking of herself and always putting them first.
She made sure books were always a part of their lives as well as supporting them in any sports they wanted to participate in. She was often seen driving the big blue “bus” (Ford van) around town filled with all of her children.
She never failed to give her children good, nutritious meals, even putting vegetables in their sack lunches. She and Tom firmly believed in treating all their 6 children and 16 grandchildren equally regardless of achievements or status in life.
She even counted the jellybeans in the yearly Easter baskets so no one would feel left out. She loved them all completely unconditionally.
While supporting her husband unceasingly, he would freely admit she kept him in line. Mary was the moral compass for us all.
After raising the children in Carlsbad, Tom and Mary moved to La Costa to enjoy the marvelous beach views, and then Leucadia to enjoy the marvelous beach walks.
In 2005, they moved to warmer Fallbrook, where a 1 story home seemed more practical. In Fallbrook, they have been active members of the community and dedicated parishioners of St. Peter the Apostle Church.
Mary is greatly missed and survived by her husband of 62 years, Tom; her children and their spouses: Maggie (Peter), Peter, Katie, Andrew (Diana), Jim (Cathy), and Joe (Angelina); her grandchildren: Maureen (Nick), Ryan, Brendan, Caitlin, Thomas, Lauren, Mathew (Cheyenne), Sarah, Daniel (Tiffany), Jared, AJ, Mary Cate, Skye, Jacob (Henrietta), and Leah (Jared); and her great-grandchildren: Arden, Lennox, Liam, and Audrey.
Mary had a profound faith in God, always standing up for others even at her own expense. She installed deep Catholic morals in all of her children.
Though we miss her greatly, we know she is whole in mind and body in heaven, basking in God’s love and peace.
Donations can be made to St. Peter’s Catholic church where a Mass can be said for peace.
