- Date Of Birth: December 17, 1920
- Date Of Death: November 22, 2019
- State: Colorado
Mary Essres Guadagnoli, 98, passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, on November 22, 2019.
Mary was born on December 17, 1920, in Karystos, on the island of Evia, Greece, to Antonia Papastamatio Essres and George Essres.
Mary, age 9, and her mother Antonia, arrived in America after a forty-day voyage, having left the rest of their family and beautiful island behind. Not knowing the language of their new country, they navigated their way from Ellis Island, and met Mary’s father at the train station in the middle of the night in Walsenburg, Colorado. They arrived in Colorado to begin their new lives at the beginning of the depression.
During these early years Mary was blessed with four brothers that she helped raise and loved dearly: Theodore, Jonathon, John, and Andrew.
Industrious even as a child, Mary started working at a drug store in Walsenburg at the age of 13, and earned enough money to make payments on a washing machine for her mother and a radio for herself. She quickly learned about “interest” and devoted herself not only to making her payments on time, but paying things off as quickly as possible. It was during this period that she developed her life long passion for maintaining an excellent credit score!
The family then moved to Trinidad, Colorado. At about the same time, Mary’s father and his brother purchased a gold mine near Leadville, Colorado, and spent the springs and summers mining.
Mary went to Trinidad High School, where she met her husband, August Guadagnoli. They fell in love, were engaged, and a short time later, August joined the Army and fought in World War II for four long years.
While August was away, Mary’s family moved to Denver.
