Mary Celia Pachico

Mary Cecelia Boren-Pachico passed away in Morro Bay April 18, 2024 aged 99. She was born at home in Lafayette, California, October 28, 1924, daughter of Mary (née Brennan) and Fred Clair Sangmaster. In childhood Mary was a good student; a pest to her elder brother, Fred; had a dog named Barney Google; and loved to play on the monkey bars. Mary’s father fished and hunted, and the family enjoyed car camping in the Sierras and the California coast. She was a Campfire Girl, collected Indian arrowheads, and was notorious for fainting during Sunday mass. Her idyllic childhood was interrupted by the sudden death of her mother when Mary was 13. After this tragedy, and encountering difficulties with her father’s remarriage, she spent considerable time with her grandmother Nellie on the Nevin family ranch in Livermore. In 1942 she was in the first graduating class of Alcalanes High in Lafayette. Her favorite subject was history. She was disappointed that the Spanish Armada sank. In February 1943 Mary enrolled as a military cadet in nurses training at Providence Hospital in Oakland. A nun pestered Mary to enter the convent until a French priest told the nun off. Mary roomed with Betty Gibson-Williams, her lifelong best friend who taught her to smoke cigarettes. Despairing of the blood in the emergency room, Mary quit nurses training. She worked in Oakland as an elevator operator, salesgirl, and bank teller. She loved to go to the big band dance halls and was pursued by several beaus. One nicknamed her the “Irish Spitfire”. Another suitor was discarded because he couldn’t dance. She was engaged to a sailor who was killed in action in the Pacific in June 1944. In June 1945 she met Henry ‘Hank’ Pachico at a dance at the City Club in Oakland. When Hank showed her the toothbrush he had invented with the paste in the handle, she thought he was pulling a knife. Hank lit cigarettes for Mary like Paul Henreid did in ‘Now Voyager’ for Bette Davis, Mary’s favorite actress. Three weeks later they married at St. Mary’s church in Walnut Creek, June 28, 1945. It was like that during the war, she said later. They honeymooned in Santa Cruz where Hank refused to eat the first meal that she cooked. They rode the bus to Hank’s home back east, stopping briefly in Omaha to have her abscessed tooth removed, the only tooth she ever lost, and they passed through Pittsburgh during the VJ-Day celebration. In Stonington, Connecticut, they lived with Hank’s family while he tried to make a go of lobstering, and Mary worked at Montgomery Ward’s. She won the $20 prize for most fruitcakes sold at Christmas. Mary became close with Hank’s younger sisters Elsie and Dottie, but it was a new experience living where many people spoke only Portuguese. When Mary became pregnant, she insisted on returning to California where she gave birth to a son, Douglas, at the county hospital in November 1946. Hank hitchhiked to work at a grocery store until they could afford a car. Wooden boxes from the produce department served as their dressers and side tables. Later they bought a house in Concord with a $99 down payment and a Veterans Administration loan. Mary miscarried, regretting ever after that she couldn’t have more children. Mary’s grandmother Nellie came to live with her. After Hank moved to Hollywood to make a go of song writing, Mary followed in 1956. She worked at the bank while Hank promoted his songs. When rock and roll crushed Hollywood dreams, they moved to Costa Mesa in 1958. She was tireless, packing lunches for Hank and Douglas, working all day at the bank in Newport Beach where she delighted in serving movie stars. She cooked delicious evening meals, kept the house immaculate, and sewed her own clothes. In 1964 they bought their only new car, a Dodge station wagon. They drove cross country to spend a wonderful summer visiting Hank’s family in New England. In 1965 Hank moved to Lake Tahoe, seeking investment opportunities. Mary followed him and worked in the bank. They lived in Incline Village, Nevada, until the roof collapsed under a heavy snowfall. In 1971 they moved to Morro Bay. Hank tried to make a go of salmon fishing while Mary worked at the bank. She left the high pressure of finance and studied at Cuesta College to earn a nursing assistant’s certificate. She cared for private patients then worked at Bayside Care Center in Morro Bay. She quit working to care for Hank until his death of lung cancer at Thanksgiving, 1982. Mary remained active, serving as the president of the Women’s Guild at St. Timothy’s church in Morro Bay, and as precinct treasurer for the Democratic Party. She studied computing at Cuesta College and visited her son Douglas and his wife Jacqui in Cali, Colombia. With Morro Bay friends, she explored her ancestral homeland, Ireland, and kissed the Blarney Stone. After a courtship concealed from town gossips, on October 31, 1985, Mary married long-time acquaintance, widower Embert ‘Bob’ Boren, in Our Lady of Carmel Church in Mill Valley. During many happy years they danced at the Madonna Inn, fished Lake Lopez in Bob’s boat, and had a wide circle of friends. They made frequent trips to Bob’s relatives in Tennessee until his van burst into flames outside Barstow. Mary was graciously accepted by Bob’s three sons and their families. Mary and Bob visited Douglas and Jacqui in Colombia, and later traveled to England to meet Jacqui’s family. They toured Ireland, where Mary chafed at Bob’s reluctance to go out in the evening to hear Irish folk music. After this trip Mary was ill for a year and never flew again. A trip from Colombia to visit Grandma and Grandpa Bob in Morro Bay became an annual summer highlight for Mary’s grandchildren Daniel, Elyssa, Julianne and Thomas. Mary cared for Bob as his mental acuity declined until she could no longer cope even with home help. After Bob’s death in 2012, she regularly visited Douglas and family in Portland, Oregon, taking the train on her own until she was 93. She lived with them during the Covid epidemic, but as soon as she was vaccinated, she returned home to Morro Bay. Despite a broken knee and repeated kidney problems, she lived on her own until a serious infection led to her hospitalization in December 2023. She then moved to Casa de Flores in Morro Bay where she received wonderful attention until her decease. Survivors from her Boren stepfamily include stepson Steve; stepson David and his wife Dorien; daughter-in-law Nancy; five grandchildren Amber, Jenifer, Matt, Sheena and Zachary; and two great-grandchildren. Her natural survivors are her son Douglas and his wife Jacqueline Ashby of Portland, Oregon; grandson Daniel and his wife Bethy of Pendleton, Oregon; granddaughter Elyssa and her partner Edgar Mazo of Medellin, Colombia; granddaughter Julianne and her husband Nick Bradley of Norwich, England; and grandson Thomas of Portland, Oregon; as well as great-grandsons Peregrine and Benjamin. A funeral mass will be held 10 a.m. May 7 in St. Timothy’s Catholic church in Morro Bay.

Mary Celia Pachico

October 28, 1924 - April 18, 2024