By Mary Ellen Graybill

[Editor’s NOTE:] This is the second part of a two-part article about a conversation with Mary Loreto, Columbia’s long-time cheerleader and proponent.

Now 85, she says, “This town is full of wonderful people, wonderful people … I tried to retire a couple of times and every time I got another job, not just a paying job, but another thing you felt you had to take care of … ”

A plaque on the building at 401 Locust Street dated November 18, 1994 reads “Offices and Apartments of The Community Action Agency of Lancaster County commend Mary Loreto “for her vision which inspired, her faith which gave confidence, and her service to others” which set an example for the housing project through the various authorities of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth, and two named banks, the Borough of Columbia, Coldwell Heckles &Egan, general contractor, and architect Cox Evans. The building was converted from a bank to a new life as an apartment complex with offices.

Today, Mary has raised 4 boys and 6 girls of her own, and she has 21 grandchildren and “in the neighborhood of ” 16 great-grandchildren. She enjoys happy memories of raising her family of ten children with husband Arthur at the house on 2nd Street that was once the Columbia Hospital. Arthur, from New Jersey originally, worked as a union sheet metal worker for the nuclear power plants. The two forged a happy marriage, before Arthur’s passing in 1984.

When Mary decided to marry Arthur at the age of 25, she had her RN degree at St. Joseph’s Hospital and several years experience as an Operating Room nurse, and then OR supervisor.

She learned to juggle raising the children with her projects in the community. 

“I always said to Arthur, if I could come in my front door, and stay in my own home, that would be a golden career for me, to be a homemaker, you know…” she said. Arthur agreed with her projects to help others.

“That’s your cup of tea,” she recalls his saying to her.

Mary felt that so many things were happening in town, with unemployment that she had to do something.

“Someone had to care.”

“Someone had to care,” she said… “What you have to do is promote the most good for the most people.”

One of the projects Mary set up was a clothing center for free clothing – setting it up in her basement. After her son, who worked in shipping told her, “I have a lot of garments that were returned or irregular.”

Looking for a use for the clothes came naturally to Mary, already with a fast growing family of “a half dozen”, she said.

“I told my kids, if you’re not of service, what good are you? It’s what it’s all about…the Lord told us that in the commandments,” she adds.

Fact is, she laughs, “I got most of my jobs for lack of volunteers! Someone had to do it!”