Mary Kallet, 96, died on July 27, 2021 at Cedarhurst Senior Living in Bloomington. For many years she suffered from Alzheimer's Disease. Mary was born March 13, 1925, in Peoria, Illinois, to Leah Hughes and Leonard Renfer. She loved high school, where she performed in school plays and worked for the local newspaper. She served in the U.S. Navy (WAVES) in 1945 and, thanks to the G.I. bill, she was able to attend the University of Massachusetts.

She was married to William "Fitz" Fitzpatrick, with whom she had a son Kevin, and then to Arthur Kallet, with whom she had two daughters, Cindy and Lisa. She later went on to receive her Master of Social Work degree from Columbia University and ultimately became the Assistant Executive Director of WARC (now The Arc Westchester). After retiring, she continued to sing in choruses, do the daily N.Y. Times crossword puzzle, read, swim, and spend time with her beloved grandsons. She spent 14 years in Rockland, Maine before moving to Bloomington in 2009, where her primary joy was attending concerts at the Jacobs School of Music.

Mary is survived by her son, Kevin Fitzpatrick; daughters, Cindy Kallet and Lisa Kallet; sons in-law, Jack Kroll and Grey Larsen; and grandsons, Arthur Blodgett, Gabriel Blodgett, David Fitzpatrick, and Shawn Fitzpatrick. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; stepson, Tony Kallet; and her three siblings, Barbara Ann Renfer, Leonard Renfer, and Ada Mae McKeehan.

The family would like to thank all of the compassionate caregivers at Autumn Hills/Cedarhurst, who smiled at, laughed with, and kidded Mary and, we have no doubt, made an unbearable disease more bearable. Many thanks, too, to Susan Adkins at Southern Care Hospice, for easing Mary and her family gracefully through her last days.

There will be no memorial service, but if you wish to make a gift in Mary's name, please consider a donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center or the Alzheimer's