Mary Garrison Korinek - Deceased

Information provided by Michael Radelet:
Mary Garrison Korinek Born 5.9.50
        Died 7.22.95 Portage, Kalamazoo County, Michigan

posted by Mary Chapman Cook
Mary Garrison was the first non St. Thomas friend I made at Gabriels. We shared locker 112 together. Mary and I reconnected at the 20th reunion and discovered we lived less than a mile apart here in Kalamazoo. We became good friends once again, and it was Mary who encouraged me to go back to school for my M.A. in English. She was diagnosed with cancer when her children Jeff and Molly were about 7 and 4. If anyone fought a "courageous" battle with that disease it was Mary. She did everything possible to live as long as possible...even when it meant spending months in isolation in a Chicago hosptial. A few days before she died her husband carried her downstairs, helped her put on her makeup, and she went out with her teacher friends to celebrate the end of the school year. She managed to live almost seven years beyond a very dismal initial diagnosis and I can testify much of it was sheer will power on Mary's part. She died in 1995. She had a beautiful Catholic funeral with hundresd of people present. I felt truly blessed to reconnect with Mary twenty years after high school, and I miss her even today.

posted by Michael Radelet

Korinek, Mrs. Mary G.
Portage, MI

Died Saturday afternoon, July 22, 1995. Mrs. Korinek was born May 9, 1950 in Lansing, Michigan, a daughter of Dillard and Martha (McNerney) Garrison. She had been a Kalamazoo resident since 1981, coming from Lansing. She was employed as a teacher in the Gull Lake Public School System for 7 years. She previously had taught at the Kalamazoo Academy, Holt, and Lowell Schools for 14 years. She was a member of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church. On November 28, 1980, she was united in marriage to Thomas A. Korinek, who survives. Also surviving are a son, Jeffrey Korinek at home; a daughter, Molly Korinek at home; her parents, Dillard (Martha) Garrison of Lansing; 3 brothers, John (Frieda) Garrison of Onondaga, MI, and Greg (Kris) Garrison and Steve (Yvonne) Garrison, both of Lansing, 4 sisters, Merle (Tom) Gallagher of Jacksonville, FL, Margaret (Gordon) Terwilliger of Mason, MI, Melinda Garrison of Paloma Park, FL, and Ellen (Jeff) Troub of Lansing; and several aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins. A Funeral Mass will be offered 11 o'clock Tuesday at the St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, 1150 W. Centre St., with the Rev. Fr. Lawrence Schoettelkotte Celebrant. Visitation will be 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. today at the Langeland Portage Chapel, 411 E. Centre Ave, A Trust 100 Chapel, with a Scripture Service being offered at 8 p.m. Internment will be in Mt. Olivet Cemetery. Memorials may be directed to the Korinek Children Educational Fund.

{Published in the Kalamazoo Gazette, July 24, 1995}