MARY ANN MOORE, 84
LAKELAND - Mary Ann Moore, 84, of Lakeland, Fla., passed away peacefully in her sleep on October 26, 2011 from the effects of dementia.
She was born Marietta Baccellieri on April 1, 1927, in the Bronx, New York, the sixth of nine children of Michael Baccellieri and Carmela Piciano Baccellieri. She attended Catholic schools until she went to work for a bank in Manhattan. In the mid-1950s, she moved to Tampa, Fla., to be closer to her sister and brother-in-law, Vera and Hampton Stevens. She was working as a bookkeeper and model at Maas Brother's department store when she met Maurice Graham Moore, who managed the nearby W.T. Grant's department store. After a three-year courtship, the couple married May 1, 1958. Her beloved son, Mark Hammond Moore, arrived in 1964. Nearly three years later, daughter Kimberly Christine Moore Wilmoth (Jimbeau) was born.
The family moved to Lakeland in 1969 and she began volunteering with The Lakeland Symphony Orchestra, along with serving as a homeroom teacher at her children's school. She also became involved in politics, volunteering for the U.S. Senate campaign of Lawton Chiles and the presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter. In March 1978, she attended, by invitation of President and Mrs. Carter, a reception at The White House.
She spent many years as a homemaker, taking care of her family at their home in South Lakeland. She enjoyed cooking, and spending time at the beach and beside the family's pool. In 1989, her beloved brother Larry Baccellieri treated her to a tour of their homeland of Italy.
In addition to her husband of 53 years and her children, she is survived by her sisters Vera Stevens, Rachel Baccellieri and Agnes Arzt, her brother Ralph Baccellieri of San Francisco, niece Deborah (Kevin) Pawlowski of Indian Shores Beach and nephews Gary (Nancy) Stevens of Marietta, Ga., Richard Baccellieri of Las Vegas, NV, and Joey Arzt of New York. She was preceded in death by, her brothers Larry and Carl Baccellieri, along with her sister-in-law Agnes Baccellieri, brother-in-law Hampton Stevens and her longtime friend, Christine Mihaleto of Athens, Greece.
A funeral service will be conducted on Wednesday, November 2 at 1:00 p.m. at the Gentry-Morrison Funeral Home Northside Chapel, 5245 U.S. 98 North, Lakeland, Fla., 33809. Entombment will follow at Serenity Gardens. A reception will then be held at the funeral home.
