Mary Alice Darr Loved the Holidays, 1935-2011

This holiday season will not be the same for the family of Mary Alice Darr, who passed away on Sept. 25 at the age of 76 due to respiratory failure.

Darr's daughter remembers her mother best for her love of holiday parties and special occasions.

“I don’t know that she was the life of the party, but she always wanted to be a part of the party and she was willing to do a lot of work to make that happen,” Sherri Dollick said.

As a little girl, Dollick remembers her mother throwing holiday parties where Santa Claus, the Easter bunny and Halloween witches all made appearances.

Dollick also remembers the family home being decked out in holiday decorations.

“She decorated for every holiday, even the minor ones,” Dollick said.
Dollick said for St. Patrick’s Day her mother would make corn beef and cabbage.

On Christmas, Darr would put together a truffle dessert, and on Easter, she cooked up a ham.

Darr was born on June 2, 1935 in Cape Fair, MO, and raised in Idaho.

In 1980, she moved to Imperial Beach after her husband retired from the U.S. Navy. When the couple divorced Darr stayed in Imperial Beach.  

“My mom loved it here,” Dollick said. “She loved the weather, she loved the beach. She really enjoyed living here.”

Darr worked as a civil servant for 28 years, as a secretary and medical transcriptionist for the Naval Regional Contracting Center, San Diego before retiring.

Dollick said she misses her mother, but is relieved to know that her mother is no longer in pain.

“It is sad for me. But I’m happy for her that her struggle is finally over," she said.

Darr is survived by her brother Jack Foster; her sister, Bobbie Atwood; her son, William Panzeri; her daughters, Vicki Panzeri, Sherri Dollick, Joni Fulton, and Julie Markey; and her grandchildren.

The family requests donations be made to San Diego Hospice in lieu of flowers.