LEMONT - Mary Patricia (Fitzgerald) Westfall, 82, of Lemont, formerly of Mendota and Bolingbrook, died Nov. 26, 2020 after battling a short but serious illness.

She was born Sept. 10, 1938 in LaSalle to Chance and Margaret (Kaufman) Fitzgerald. She married Lenny Westfall on Sept. 5, 1959. He preceded her in death.

Survivors include three children, Joel (Karyn), Dave (Cathy) and Tim (Dianne); four grandchildren, Nikki, Taylor, T.J. and Paige; one great-grandson, Harrison; and one brother, Jerry (Toni) Fitzgerald.

She was preceded in death by her husband; one son, Matthew Westfall; and one sister, Andrea Benson.

Mary Patricia was a graduate of Mendota High School. She worked at the CBQ Railroad in Chicago and for decades, worked at the Bolingbrook Metropolitan Newspaper. Later in life, she worked at the Mendota Lutheran Home. She was a member of the Troy Grove Grange and the Sauk Valley Humane Society. She was a very determined woman and raised four sons. She often used the idiom “By Cracky!” to emphasize what she was saying. She was an enthusiastic baker, and delighted in making homemade cookies, cakes and pies for her sons and the other kids in the neighborhood. She produced homemade jelly from hand-picked grapes almost every year over the last 50 years. She shunned television throughout her life but was a passionate radio listener. She loved public radio shows such as “Car Talk” with Click and Clack and “Jazz with Dick Buckley.” She loved listening to jazz music, especially free form jazz. Mary Patricia was both a spiritual and religious person throughout her life and held onto her core beliefs in spite of changing her faith from Catholicism to Baptist and then back to Catholicism. She will be remembered as a kind, generous spirit that touched the lives of many with her warmth and a no-nonsense approach to everything.