Mary Eleanor Francis Cardell

Mary Francis Cardell, 77, passed away Wednesday morning, June 6, 2016. She was born August 19, 1938 in Louisville, KY and grew up in Volusia County, FL. Mary graduated from Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, where her father, Edward Guy Francis taught for many years. Her mother, Eleanor Michael Francis, was a former librarian and a native of Cincinnati, OH. Mary was a 1961 graduate of Western Carolina University and began teaching First grade at Mattie V. Rutherford Elementary School. She was introduced to her future husband, Dick Cardell, by a mutual teacher friend at a Christmas dance. Mary later moved to West Palm Beach and Dick moved to Fernandina Beach and they met several times at her parent's home in Ormond Beach. They were married in 1965 at St. James Episcopal Church in Ormond Beach. Mary became a librarian at San Mateo Elementary School. In 1968, following a state-wide teacher walk-out, Mary became a librarian for the City of Jacksonville, spending most of her thirty year career in the former Art & Music Department of the downtown library. She earned her Masters degree in Library at Florida State University. Mary and Dick loved to travel and have been to all the states except Hawaii and North Dakota. They took cruises to Alaska, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and the Rhine and Danube Rivers as well as trips to Paris, the British Isles and Austria. She sang in the choir of St John's Cathedral for years and played the bells. She played the clarinet in the Recycles Band. She also sang in the Friday Musicale chorus and sometimes with the choir of St Marks Evangelical Lutheran Church, which she traveled to New York when they sang the Mozart Requiem in Carnegie Hall. She and Dick held season tickets for the Jacksonville Symphony and attended chamber music concerts at Beaches Fine Arts, San Marco, Church of the Good Shepherd, Amelia Island Festival, etc. She and Dick participated in the Cemetery Tours sponsored by the Pilot Club. She was active in the Sierra Club and had hiked several miles of the Appalachian Trail before she developed a neurological condition with Parkinson's like symptoms. She was proud of her Scottish heritage and was active in the St Andrews Society. Mary cared deeply about social issues and was on the Executive Committee of the Duval County Democratic Party. Both were active in the inter-faith ICARE organization. Dick and Mary were active in two churches, Arlington Congregational Church UCC and St John's Episcopal Cathedral. There will be a memorial service scheduled soon and a burial of the ashes ceremony in the Garden of St John's at a later date. In lieu of flowers please consider donating to your favorite charity or to St John's Episcopal Cathedral (especially to their music ministry and the maintenance of the bells) or Arlington Congregational Church UCC.