Mrs. Mary Lina Kosicki

Obituary of Mary Lina Strauff Kosicki 1923-2023 Born: July 21, 1923, Baltimore MD Deceased: April 15, 2023, Greenville SC A native fifth-generation Baltimorean, Mary Lina was the first of four daughters born to Edward August Strauff (deceased 1933) and Loretta Mary ( Philbin) Strauff (deceased 1989). She is survived by her beloved children, son Stephen D. Conner of Charlotte NC and daughter Regina Helm Conner Hermans of Zuelpich, Germany, and their respective spouses, Jill Deese Conner and Dr. Ludwig F. Hermans. She was also “Mimi” to her four beloved grandchildren, Alena Hermans White (Lars White), of Berlin Germany, Dr. Cecilia Hermans Dietrich (Dr. Andrew Dietrich), of Rottach-Egern Germany, William Strauff Conner and Elizabeth McGowan Conner of Charlotte NC, and her three great-grandchildren Livia White, Elinor White, and Charlotte Dietrich. She is also survived by her two sisters, Anne Strauff Joslin of West Palm Beach FL, and Joan Strauff Howe of Annapolis MD. Her sister Loretta Strauff Munn Eaton of Owings Mills, MD (deceased 2017). Her half-sister Mable Strauff (deceased 1989) was the daughter of her father and his first wife Mabel Walton. She is also survived by many beloved cousins, nephews, nieces, and many friends. Mary Lina attended primary school at Calvert School in Baltimore MD and was a high school graduate of Notre Dame of Maryland Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies (Notre Dame) and received her Batchelor of Philosophy degree (Ph.B.) at the University of Chicago. She later obtained an Elementary Teachers Certificate from Towson State Teachers College. During WWII she worked for the US War Rationing effort and for the US Air Force Air Transport Command in Miami, Florida, where she was chosen as a recruitment model for posters and air-dropped flyers for the US Women’s Army Corp (WACs). She married David Steele Conner of Wayne, Pennsylvania in 1947, with whom she had her two children, Stephen and Regina during their eleven years of marriage. In 1964, she remarried Witold W. Kosicki of Detroit Michigan (deceased 2010), living with him in Summit NJ, and Columbia SC before returning to Baltimore. After his death, she moved to the retirement community The Woodlands at Furman in Greenville, SC in 2013 where she lived for the last ten years of her life. Mary Lina was a person of many interests – academic, social, artistic, and athletic. She loved traveling, reading, painting, drawing, sculpting, needlepointing, knitting, crocheting, poetry writing, and playing piano and enjoyed and taught photography. She also loved tennis, golf, skiing, and bridge in her earlier years. She was an avid social dancer, and together with her husband Wit, often cleared the dance floor when her generation’s Big Band music was played. They were members of the Rockbridge Country Club in Columbia and later of the L'Hirondelle Club in Ruxton MD and the Cosmopolitan Club in Baltimore. In her long life she visited over 40 countries and lived in 29 residences. She attended numerous university and community classes on a variety of subjects and pursued learning new languages throughout her life. She volunteered to teach the nuances of the English language to foreign graduate students and their spouses in Baltimore and Columbia, was a reader to the blind on Radio Columbia and was the Philanthropic Coordinator of the Columbia Better Business Bureau, a Board Member of the Town Theater in Columbia, and a Docent of the Columbia Museum of Art. A memorial Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, June 17th, 2023, at 9:30 am at Saints Philip & James Catholic Church, 2801 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD followed by a burial at 11:00 am at the New Cathedral (Bonnie Brea) Cemetery, 4300 Old Frederick Road, Baltimore MD 21227 beside her husband and father and many of her German and Irish American ancestors of several generations. A reception honoring Mary Lina will also be held at The Woodlands of Furman on June 22, 2023 from 3-4 pm in the community room. Funeral Arrangements by Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral home, Baltimore MD. www.mwfuneralhome.com Her family is extremely grateful for the care and kindness of the Woodlands at Furman staff during her residency in Independent Living, and of the several dedicated nurses and other caregivers in Skilled Nursing, Interim Hospice, and for the many visits from her friends at the Woodlands during her last four months. She will be dearly missed by friends and family. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Associated Catholic Charities of Baltimore www.cc-md.org. Please designate any such donations for “Women in Need at Anna’s House”, 320 Cathedral Street, Baltimore MD 21201, which was her favorite charity to help homeless women and their dependent young children. Catholic Charities was established in 1923, the year of Mary Lina’s birth.

Mrs. Mary Lina Kosicki

July 21, 1923 - April 15, 2023