Mary Lambro, wife of the late Wellesley barber Pascal “Pat” Lambro, died Tuesday after a long illness. She was 88.
For the past year Mrs. Lambro was a resident of the Burke Healthcare Center nursing home in Burke, Va., where she moved to be near her son, Donald Lambro, after being hospitalized last December at Newton-Wellesley Hospital following a stroke.
Born in Albania, she was raised in Worcester, Mass. by her Albanian immigrant parents, Cosmo Lapery and Alexandra Zoto, eventually marrying Pat Lambro who settled in Wellesley where he opened up a popular barber shop and electric razor business on Crest Road. He remained in business there for nearly 60 years before his death in 1995.
Mrs. Lambro and her husband raised three children in Wellesley, Phillip Lambro, a pianist and composer in Los Angeles, Donald, who is chief political correspondent for The Washington Times and a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, and Mrs. Holly Lambro Franke, co-author of two travel books and now a resident of Wellesley.
A voracious reader, for many years Mary Lambro was a fixture at the
Wellesley Librarywhere she pursued her passion for biographies and historical novels. She was also an inveterate walker, thinking nothing of walking from her home at 2
Windemere Road to the library or the shops along Washington Street into her 80s. She attended the Albanian Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Natick and was a strong supporter of the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown and the Salvation Army.
She is survived by her three children and two grandchildren, Jason Lambro of Arlington, Va., Miss. Melissa Franke, and a sister, Mrs. Dorothy Christo of Southbridge, Mass. Her younger brother, James Lapery, and an older sister, Olga Lambert, have passed away.
Funeral from the George F. Doherty & Sons Funeral Home, 477 Washington St., Wellesley, on Saturday at 9 am. Funeral service in the Albanian Church of the Annunciation 37 Washington St., Natick at 10 am. Relatives and friends kindly invited. Visiting hours Friday 4-8 pm. Interment Woodlawn Cemetery, Wellesley.
The Lambro family asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Perkins School for the Blind, c/o Kathleen Brittan, 175 N. Beacon St., Watertown, Mass. 02472.