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MARY JO Two days after what would have been her 66th wedding anniversary, Mary Jo Yates died in Los Lunas, NM, on Thursday, December 28, 2006, at the age of 94. She was born in Virginia, MN, on June 6, 1912. Mary Jo started school speaking only Italian, and after graduating from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN during the Depression, became a high school English teacher. She taught for several years in Sandstone MN, where she met Joe Yates. Mary Jo and Joe were married in Bovey, MN in 1942. After the War, Joe and Mary Jo followed Joe's job with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to Terre Haute, IN, and McNeil Island, WA, before returning to and eventually retiring in Sandstone. Mary Jo made life-long friends while teaching in Sandstone, living on "the Island," and later as a "snowbird" wintering in California. She was a pretty good bridge player, a poet, and an excellent baker of Christmas cookies. She loved a good joke, and always enjoyed visiting her siblings, nieces and nephews, and her former students. Mary Jo was preceded in death by her parents, Dominick and Christina Mazzitelli; three brothers, Joe, Jack, and Mickey Mazzitelli, and her husband, Joe Yates. She is survived by her sisters, Helena Atkinson of Hopkins, MN, Angeline Kozak and husband, Hubert of Sun City West, AZ, Carmella Klinker of Nashwauk, MN; sister-in-law, Irma Mazzitelli of Shorewood, MN; son, Jim and wife, Letty and their children, Angela and Anthony Yates of San Antonio, TX; daughter, Janet; and friend, Shannan Carter of Los Lunas, NM. Because Mary Jo wished to be cremated instead of buried, her wishes have been carried out in Albuquerque. A celebration of Mary Jo's life will be held in Minneapolis where friends and family will gather to place her at rest at Fort Snelling next to her beloved husband, Joe. The date will be announced in the spring. French Mortuary 1111 University Blvd. NE 843-6333
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