Mary Traverso, member of well-known wine and food family, dies at 71

Mary Traverso, a former flight attendant who set roots in Sonoma County shortly after marrying into one of its favorite retail food-and-wine families, died Thursday.

Traverso, a world traveler known also for galvanizing fellow residents of her Bennett Valley neighborhood to meet twice a year to weed, plant, mow, prune and beautify their part of town, was 71.

Her husband, Bill Traverso, played a central role for decades at Traverso’s, the deli, wine shop and gourmet market that dated to 1932 and evolved and flourished in Santa Rosa until 2011.

Each Christmas season, Mary Traverso and sister-in-law Sandra Traverso set up something of a Santa’s workshop inside the store. There they filled, wrapped and bowed holiday baskets.

“It was a lot of work,” Bill Traverso said. “They made so many baskets at Christmas it was unbelievable.”

Mary Traverso was diagnosed with lymphoma last June. She was treated at Stanford Hospital and the cancer went into remission, but earlier this year it became active again.

She died Thursday morning at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

Born Mary Darcy in New York City, she lived there until about age 10, when her parents moved the family to New Smyrna Beach, Fla.

After graduating from high school and college in Florida, she followed the lead of her mother, Ann Darcy, and became a flight attendant ­- then called a stewardess - with American Airlines.

Bill Traverso said his future wife excelled at taking care of passengers. “Those were the days when customer service was very, very important,” he said.

He was teaching school in South San Francisco when a mutual friend introduced him to the flight attendant from Florida. They married in 1971 and a short time later moved to Santa Rosa, where Bill Traverso went to work at the family store, becoming its wine specialist.

Mary Traverso left American Airlines upon the birth of the first of four children. She became a homemaker and expert Christmas-basket maker.

More recently, she partnered with her husband in organizing and leading trips to Italy that focused on food, wine and culture.

“We worked good as a team,” Bill Traverso said.

About 11 years ago, Mary Traverso and neighbor Pat Mai agreed that something had to be done about the shabby appearance of the street medians, along the sidewalks and in other common areas of their neighborhood in southeast Santa Rosa.

They founded Bennett Valley Vision, which twice a year encourages neighbors to bring their garden tools and spruce up the place.

It’s become a model for other neighborhoods.

Above all else, Traverso enjoyed her children, grandchildren and the large family she married into 45 years ago.

“That was her main focus,” her husband said.

In addition to her husband and son Tom Traverso of San Francisco, she is survived by a second son, Chris Traverso, of Windsor; daughters Stephanie Thair of Rancho Santa Margarita and Alexis Berding of Petaluma, sister Patricia Weed of Overland Park, Kan.; brother Thomas Darcy of Flagler Beach, Fla., and two grandchildren.

Services will be private.