Mary B. Patterson

Mary B. (Gennusa) Patterson was born in a small village, Bisacquino, on the island of Sicily off the shore of Italy.

She came to this country as a small child and grew up in Thompsonville/Enfield, Connecticut.

Raised in an ethnic Italian family, Mary’s parents said she was “always old enough to get married but never old enough to date.” Trying to fit into young American society, Mary found creative ways to balance her ethnic home and American backyard life.

Mary moved to Maryland to help in her sister’s restaurant, the Topside Inn, in Galesville. There she met her husband, and after three weeks of dating, he asked her to marry him. It took her one week to say yes, and they were married six months later. Together they raised three remarkable sons in Crofton, Maryland.