Mary Balistreri

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our mother the matriarch of the family Mary Balistreri on November 4, 2025, after a 6-year journey with Alzheimer’s. In her 101 years Mary experienced an abundance of family, friends, food and fun. Mary would want all to know how grateful she was to have lived a long healthy life full of wonderful experiences and simple pleasures.

Family: Mary was the youngest of five children, born on May 10, 1924. She was raised in West Milwaukee and graduated from West Milwaukee High School, class of 1942.  Shortly after graduation she married the love of her life Anthony Balistreri (Tony) and maintained a loving and supportive marriage of 68 years. They worked hard and together they raised five children in West Allis. The joy of welcoming each new grandchild into the world was truly a blessing.  As her children moved to different states she traveled to wherever she was needed to babysit her grandchildren and always thought of those experiences as adventures and the opportunity to create loving memories. She passed along her love for animals to her children and grandchildren. She made sure a dog, or cat was always part of the family.

Friends: Mary cherished her friendships, developing them at each stage of her life, with many of these lasting until they were in their 90s, including her high school friend Helen.

Food: Mary taught herself to cook using several favorite cookbooks and for fun enrolled in cooking classes at MATC. One of her favorite hobbies was collecting recipes. She hosted holidays, birthday parties, cookouts and baked Christmas cookies for her large family. But many times, it was just the simple hot ham and rolls on a Sunday afternoon that made the best memories. She and Tony loved having coffee, donuts and good conversation around the kitchen table with family or friends.

Fun: If you asked Mary what contributed to her longevity, she would say it was her love of music, dancing and laughter. She liked many different types of music, but her favorite was polka music. She and Tony were good dancers and would join friends out for evenings of dinner and dancing. After Tony passed she enjoyed going with friends and family to polka concerts in the park and continued to dance.  She had a great sense of humor, loved a good joke and had a loud fun filled laugh. She truly enjoyed people. At the end of get togethers she had a hard time saying good-bye…she always had to give one last hug and kiss, say “drive safely” 2 or 3 times or just start a new conversation. Everyone expected her goodbyes to take 20 – 30 minutes.

Mary lived long enough to proudly see the family grow to 5 generations and is survived by her loving and thoughtful children, Madeline (Pat) Faillaci, Tom (Noreen) Balistreri, son-in-law Tim Hunn, Norma (Jim) Swenor and Annette (Mike) Geiger, 16 grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren and 5 great-great grandchildren. Also survived by many caring nieces and nephews. Mary’s dedicated husband Tony passed in 2010 and her dear daughter Carol Ann Hunn in 2022.

We want to express our gratitude to the compassionate care givers at Froedtert Hospital/Horizon Hospice and The Lutheran Home in Wauwatosa.

A celebration of life will be held in 2026.

Per Mary’s request, please consider donating in her name to support veterans at DAV or Wounded Warrior Project.

She lent unwavering support to both family and friends and will be forever missed and loved.