Obituary of Mary Zimowsky

Mary (Mae) Zimowsky of Palm City, Fla., died of heart failure on Jan. 29 in the home she loved, cared for by her life partner Pete Boshier.

She was born on Oct. 1, 1921 in Jersey City, N. J. to Peter and Helen (Olena Braytna) Naumyk. She was one of nine children of immigrant parents who came to the United States from Russia and the Ukraine. Mae's father worked in building demolition and her mother was a janitor. The Naumyk family lived in a four-room apartment and even though times were hard, her sister Kay recalls they "had good times." During the Depression Aunt Kay remembers the family having to live on $5 a week.

After World War II, Mae married Pete Zimowsky, a sergeant in the U.S. Army who had recently come back from the war. He was an infantryman who crossed Europe during the war and was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. Together they worked and lived in Jersey City where their son Peter was born in 1947. They loved going to the Jersey Shore and soon bought property in Waretown, N.J., where they eventually moved and son Paul was born in 1963. Mae was independent and got a driver's license and her own car, a 1940's clunker, at a time when women typically didn't drive. Mae loved fishing, clamming and boating on the Jersey Shore with her sons.

After her first husband died, Mae moved to Florida in 1971 and made a life with Pete Boshier and her son Paul. Her older son Peter moved to Idaho after graduating from Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Mae worked hard in the floral and housekeeping industries. She and Pete Boshier also cleared their two-acre property and made a comfortable home which she loved. They spent a lot of time fishing South Florida, especially on Lake Okeechobee. Pete operated heavy equipment and worked on many of the highways and bridges in Martin County and South Florida. Mae was most comfortable in dungarees and out working in the yard.

In her later years, Mae enjoyed sitting on the porch of her Palm City home in Florida's pine and oak forest with her cat Blackie and watching birds, deer and squirrels in the yard. She especially loved when the sandhill cranes would come by to visit.

Mae's son, Paul, who she loved dearly, proceeded her in death. Survivors include her life partner of 40-plus years, Pete (Charles) Boshier; her sisters, Kay Butler of Waretown, N.J., and Ann Schott of Port Jarvis, N.Y. and a brother Paul Naumyk of Port Reading, N.J.; her son, Peter and wife Julie of Boise, Idaho; grandchildren, James (Jenni), of Seattle, Wash.; and Christine (Tully) Gerlach and Andrew (Lisa), of Boise; and six great-grandchildren.



Memorials may be made to Treasure Coast Hospice whose caregivers helped Mae remain at home, http://www.tchospice.org; (772) 403-4506; or the Florida Oceanographic Society, where Mae loved petting the stingrays; http://www.floridaocean.org/p/62/make-a-donation, (772) 225-0505, ext. 109.

Graveside services are Friday, Feb. 4, 10:00 AM, at Forest Hills Memorial Park in Palm City, Fla.; http://www.foresthillspalmcityflorida.com, (772) 287-8484.