Mary E. Best

         Mary E. Best age 98 of Conneaut died March 4, 2022 at the Ashtabula County Medical Center.

         Mary was born on June 18, 1923 in Orangeville, Ohio to Elmer and Angeline Gildone Best.  Mary graduated from Rowe High School in 1941.  Mary followed her life’s desire to enter the convent, but found that convent life was not for everyone, and with the counsel of the vicar for Religious in Chicago, who helped her find a job as editor of Catholic Forester, a Catholic national family magazine, she began the second phase of her life.  Always interested in learning, she earned a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University, Chicago and later a Master’s degree in pastoral studies from Loyola University, New Orleans.  Aside from her religious work, she loved to write and published two books: Seventy Septembers and How Shall We Become Holy, 20 Steps to Intimacy with God.

          Mary loved the song “When you came to the seashore. You weren’t seeking the wise or the wealthy, but only asking that I might follow. O Lord, in my eyes you were gazing, kindly smiling, my name and You were saying.  all I treasured I have life by the sand there, close to you, I have found other seas.”

          Mary was always ready to help others.  She received the Erie Chapter of the four Chaplains Legion of Honor Award for her services.  The four Chaplains, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Methodist, and Dutch Reformed offered their life jackets to the soldiers as the Dorchester was sinking taking the chaplains with it.

          Mary was preceded in death by her parents, and siblings Wilbert John, James, Ruth, Lawrence, Marcell, Richard, Paul and Charles.

          She is survived by a sister Carol, brothers, Robert and Harold Best and numerous nieces and nephews.

          Mass will be held Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Andrew Bobola Catholic Church, Kingsville with Father John Ettinger officiating.

          Graveside service will be held at on Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 2:30 p.m. at St. Joseph Cemetery, Conneaut

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