Life-Long Thurmont Resident Mary Virginia Henning Tortoro

Francis A. Tortoro, Jr.

My late mother, Mary Virginia Henning Tortoro, was born and raised in Thurmont and a life-long resident of the community. Over her ninety-four years of life, she witnessed many changes and progress that impacted our residents. She was a dedicated wife to my late father, Francis, who for over fifty-six years operated a one-chair barbershop from our home. She was also a devoted mother to my brother, David, and me. Her faith in God and love for her family was the cornerstone of her life. In memorial to my mother, I’ve prepared an essay depicting her early life in Thurmont, how she met my father, and how much love she had for her family. She was a most remarkable lady, definitely “old school” in many of her ways and was a member of “The Greatest Generation,” those who lived through the Great Depression and World War II Era. We, as a society, have lost so much of what they lived and stood for. We need to reclaim the values of the past if we are to have a secure future.

August 22, 1922 – June 8, 2017

Mary Virginia Henning Tortoro lived her entire life in Thurmont, born and raised at The Shipley Home, “along the avenue” on the west side of Thurmont, at the base of the Catoctin Mountains. Her parents, John F. and Fairy Dell Long Henning, moved to the area from Virginia in 1919 to live with Mrs. Henning’s sister and husband, Laura Long Merritt and Caleb Cornwall Merritt, to assist them in managing their place, which at the time consisted of over 500 acres of farm and mountain lands.

Mary Henning was an only daughter in a family of seven children, including her twin brother Franklin, who died at age seven months. Mary and her brothers all attended school in Thurmont. She often walked the mile or so to school, even in bitter cold and deep snow. She’s often related the story of how after a winter snow storm, if not enough children got to school to hold classes and school was closed, that her teacher, Miss Hodie Beard, would send her and another pupil across the street to Charlie Hobbs’ store—now Hoffman’s Market—to buy sandwiches and crackers, for which Miss Beard paid of her own money, so the class could at least have a small party before braving the elements to return home.

A series of tragedies occurred for Mary’s family in the early 1940s, when first their home “on the Avenue,” referred to as The Big House, was destroyed by fire in the fall of 1940, and in August 1943, when her father succumbed to cancer at the age of fifty-four. As a  member of her extended family of aunts and uncles had also passed away, and her brothers married, Mary and her mother sold the property and moved together into an apartment in the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Stiles at 407 East Main Street in Thurmont. Then later, to the corner of West Main Street and South Altamont Avenue in an apartment owned by Mr. Rudolph Tyler. To support themselves, they worked at several factories, among them the Cambridge Rubber Company in Taneytown during World War II, Claire Frock Company, and Thurmont Show Company, and at canning factories at Orrtanna and Biglerville, Pennsylvania and Thurmont. She last worked outside the home during the summer of 1955 at the Thurmont Canning Company after she married my father.

In the early 1940s, prior to my father and parents moving to Thurmont from Baltimore, Maryland, my grandfather, Frank J. Tortoro, an Italian immigrant and master stone cutter, began employment at Hammaker Brothers Memorial in Thurmont, boarding during the week at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Fleagle, located at 10 Church Street, who operated a boarding house and offered bountiful meals for the most reasonable cost of 50 cents. In 1945, my grandfather decided to make the move to Thurmont, where with his wife, Anna, and my father Francis, purchased a home at the corner of Rt. 550 and Kelbaugh Road, which no longer stands. While the family was visiting Thurmont making the arrangements, they ate at the Fleagle home, where in 1945 my father Francis first met my mother, who, with her mother, ate lunch at the home as they worked at the time at the Thurmont Shoe Company, then located just across the street from the Fleagle home. However, not until returning to Baltimore in mid-1948 to learn the barber profession, and subsequent return to Thurmont in late 1951 to open his own barbershop at their home at 22 Church Street, did he decide to court my mother in 1954, and they were married on April 24, 1955.

As my paternal grandmother passed away in September of 1954, my parents upon their marriage resided with my grandfather on Church Street, where my father maintained his one-chair barbershop at the front of the home. During their time with my grandfather, I was born in September of 1956.

In November 1958, we moved to our current home in Thurmont, where we have resided for over fifty-eight years, and where my father continued to maintain his barbershop until his retirement at the end of June 2008 at the age of eighty-four, after over fifty-six years in business. Following several health issues over the years thereafter, and a year at the Glade Valley Center in Walkersville, he passed away on New Year’s Day 2012 at the age of eighty-seven.

Following my father’s passing, my mother’s health gradually declined. On the day after New Year’s 2015, she suffered her first stroke. After a nearly two-month stay at the Glade Valley Center, she made a full recovery and returned home. In the fall of 2015, she suffered a second, more serious, stroke, which after an additional three-month stay at Glade Valley, she made another complete recovery.

In late winter of 2016, she experienced a fall from which she sustained fractures that necessitated her permanent placement at the Glade Valley Center. There, she was attended once again as her previous two visits, by many of the same staff who had cared for my father in 2011. While under the professional and capable care of the Haven Court and Physical Therapy staffs, her condition stabilized and improved. She made many friends at Glade Valley, among her fellow residents and staff, and was well thought of by all who came to know her.

While at Glade Valley, she suffered two additional strokes, the first from which she fully recovered. However, following the second in late April 2017, she was growing weaker, and at the age of ninety-four, was unable to move back as she had before. Early in the morning on Thursday, June 8, 2017, she quietly passed away.

My mother’s utmost joy in life has been providing for and taking loving care of her family. Every summer, she planted a sizable garden and enjoyed canning peaches, pears, tomatoes, and green beans. She frequently said she was in her glory providing for her family for the winter. She enjoyed working in the yard and even enjoyed shoveling snow in the winter, which she said she missed doing when she no longer could. She often spoke of her parents and of life at “The Big House,” growing up at the Shipley home and helping her father cut wood, working their large gardens, and raising chickens and her pet turkeys.

My brother David and I wish to express our sincere appreciation to the staff of the Glade Valley Center and especially to those who attended my mother on a daily basis in Haven Court, for the loving care they provided her, and for the friendships she made that helped sustain her throughout her stay.

We also wish to express our appreciation to all our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, who have offered their prayers and support during this difficult time.

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