Mary Taylor Laudel

You’d be forgiven for mistaking Mary Taylor Laudel for a sweet old woman. She was certainly sweet (and quite fun as well), but she was steel underneath.

That steel was forged early when the Great Depression pulled her family apart and left her stranded in an orphanage in Cincinatti, OH with her two younger brothers.

Upon coming of age she bravely moved herself and her brothers out west, landing in Berkeley, CA where she found a job as a telephone operator. It wasn’t long before a local man fell in love with her voice and began calling in to woo her. Mary initially resisted his courting to attend college, but eventually gave into his charms, marrying Albert Chandice Laudel in 1953. They had three children and eventually bought a home in El Cerrito, the home she died in, attended by family nearly 50 years later on October 7, 2021, aged 88.

Mary was an early women’s rights advocate, though she might not have claimed as much. Not content to stay at home once her children were in school, she decided in the 1960s to test for a job at the Berkeley Post Office. Over objections from her husband Mary became Berkeley’s first female mail carrier. (Al eventually warmed to the idea, and in later years could often be heard bragging about his wife’s job.) Mary proudly carried mail for 25 years until her retirement in the early 1990s.

Though she retired, Mary never stopped walking and could often be seen along her old route, which included Solano Avenue. It was not uncommon, well into her 80s, for long-time residents and shop keepers to recognize and stop her for a fond chat.

It’s no wonder people did so. Mary was one of those people who made you feel good about yourself. She was always interested in your story, ready to draw it out with a never-ending barrage of questions and sincere enthusiasm. You should know, if you ever told your story to Mary, that she remembered and reveled in it. Another part of her daily routine involved an hour-long phone chat with her youngest son, Patrick, to whom your stories were imparted with great excitement and relish.

Mary’s primary passion, though, was travel. Her home was full of photos and memorabilia from trips to Thailand, India, Egypt, New Zealand, Australia, and various Middle Eastern countries, among her many destinations. (She always said Vietnam was her favorite.) In between bouts overseas she filled her schedule with day trips and short overnight jaunts with her friends at the Albany Senior Center. Mary went out into the world at every opportunity until the pandemic grounded her. It couldn’t keep her from walking, though, and she continued to do that until she
was recently taken ill.

Mary is survived and will be deeply missed by her three children Michael, Cindy, and Patrick Laudel, daughters-in-law Sharon Laudel and Veronica Boutelle, granddaughter Jennifer Earnest, brother and sister-in-law Larry and Rose Taylor, sister Linda Eaton, nephews Lawrence, Robert, Michael, and Jeff Taylor, and all who knew her.

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