Mary Louise Graxirena, 93, of Huntsville, passed away peacefully on February 18, 2022. Born Maria Luisa Ceballos in Los Angeles, CA on August 6, 1928, Mary was the 12th of 13 children born to Donaciano Ceballos and Concepcion Cosio Ceballos, who emigrated from their native Mexico in the early 1900s.
As a young lady coming of age in Southern California, Mary loved exploring Los Angeles and beyond with her adventurous big sister Cecilia. In 1952, the sisters took a trip to Texas, which would prove fateful. While photographing the alligators in El Paso’s famed San Jacinto Plaza, Mary chanced to meet Carlos Graxirena, a young WWII veteran who was making his way from New York to California. As Carlos would recount for years afterward, “Just like the Marty Robbins song, down in the West Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl.” After eloping to Yuma, AZ in 1954, the newlyweds lived for five years in Hollywood before settling in Santa Ana, where their family of two children grew to four.
Carlos’s work in aerospace brought the young family to North Alabama in 1964, and they settled in Madison, where their fifth child was born. The dynamic duo made many friends in Madison, where Carlos was known for hosting gatherings of musicians for “picking and grinning,” and Mary treated the neighborhood kids with her famous homemade brownies and could often be seen walking to the Bookmobile with stacks of novels. In the 1980s, Carlos’s job moved them first to Webb City, MO, and then to Columbus, OH, and they made many more good friends in both communities.
Upon Carlos’s retirement in 1991, the couple returned to Madison, where Mary particularly enjoyed her ladies’ Bible study group at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. After Carlos passed in 1996, Mary moved to Southeast Huntsville to be near her eldest daughter. There she became a parishioner at Good Shepherd Catholic Church, which remained her spiritual home for the rest of her life.
Mary’s kind heart and sunny disposition endeared her to friends, neighbors, and all who knew her, and her keen interests in politics, literature, and popular culture made her a lively conversationalist and formidable opponent in Trivial Pursuit. Mary was a strong believer in charity for those who are less fortunate, tolerance for those who are different, and equal justice for all people, and she lived those values through small acts of kindness and generosity to the end of her long life.
Mary was preceded in death by her loving husband of 42 years, Claudio T. “Carlos” Graxirena, a native of Fajardo, Puerto Rico; her parents, Donaciano and Concepcion Ceballos; and all twelve of her siblings – Andres, Jose, Juan, Francesca, Maria Elena, Carlotta, Francisco, Maurice, Leopoldo, Cecilia, Domingo, and Carlos. Mary is survived by her five children, Claudio T. Graxirena Jr. of Carmichael, CA, Teresa G. Rosher (J.H. “Chips”) of Huntsville, AL, Mario Graxirena of Huntsville, AL, Amelia G. Anderson (Robert) of Coppell, TX, and Renee Graxirena (Andrew Pines) of Deerfield, IL; five grandchildren, Ciara Graxirena, Katherine Mary “Katie” Rosher, Natalie and Caroline Anderson, and Joseph Pines; and many nieces, nephews, great nieces, and great nephews.
Friends and neighbors are invited to join the family on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 from 5-7pm at Laughlin Service Funeral Home for a celebration of Mary’s life, and on Thursday, March 3, 2022 at Good Shepherd Catholic Church for a visitation from 10-11am and a funeral Mass at 11am.
