Dr. Mary Papola, 92, physician

Dr. Mary Longo Papola, 92, a physician who cared for families in South Philadelphia and Upper Darby, died of sepsis Saturday, Nov. 19, at Freedom Village, a retirement community in West Brandywine.

Dr. Papola grew up in South Philadelphia, where her Italian immigrant parents ran a bakery.

She graduated from John W. Hallahan Catholic High School, earned a bachelor's degree from Immaculata College, and was one of five women to earn a medical degree from Temple University in 1943.

After interning at Misericordia Hospital, she established a family practice in her parents' home on South Broad Street.

She delivered babies and cared for children and adults, who called her Dr. Mary, said a son, John, a physician.

Sometimes, he accompanied her on house calls. Once in the 1960s, he said, they visited a woman who was on a couch in her home. After conversing with the woman in Italian, Dr. Papola handed her $20. "The woman was distraught because she couldn't pay her bills. My mother knew the money would help more than pills," John Papola said.

Dr. Papola became a mother of four in 1961 when she married a widower, Dr. Gino G. Papola. The children ranged in age from 6 to 14. She and her husband met at St. Agnes Hospital, where they were both on the staff.

"She hit the ground running," her son said, moving her new family into her home on South Broad Street. "At first we called her Dr. Mary," her son said, "but within months we were calling her mom."

The Papolas moved to Drexel Hill in 1972 and then to Bryn Mawr in 1991.

After she stopped delivering babies in 1972, Dr. Papola assisted her husband with his practice in Upper Darby, until retiring in the mid-1980s.

She and her husband were active with the St. Francis Chapter of the National Catholic Physicians Guild, as well as the International Association of Catholic Physicians.

They traveled the world until 2003, often participating in seminars and lecturing on medical ethics.

During her lifetime, Dr. Papola had audiences with four popes, her son said, and met Mother Teresa when she and her husband visited Calcutta, India.

She had been active in St. John Neumann Church, cooking for the poor and bringing communion to the sick. In recent years, she coordinated weekly Mass liturgies at Freedom Village, where she and her husband moved in 2008.

Besides her husband and son, Dr. Papola is survived by a daughter, Anita Cellucci; sons Gino and Frank; three sisters; 11 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 11:30 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 26, at St. John Neumann Church, 380 Highland Lane, Bryn Mawr. Burial will be in SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Marple Township.

Donations may be made to the Mary C. Longo Papola M.D. Scholarship Fund, c/o Daniel Cellucci, 157 Warrior Rd., Drexel Hill, Pa. 19026. Dr. Papola established the scholarship in 2001 to be awarded to a female graduate of a Catholic grammar school who excelled in science.