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Loretta Mahony; Cardinal’s Mother Helped Run Family Firm

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Loretta Mahony, who helped run her family poultry business and was the mother of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, died Monday. She was 88.

She died at a Santa Ana nursing home, the diocese announced.

The cardinal will celebrate a Mass of Christian Burial for his mother at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood, where his parents were married. Mrs. Mahony will be buried alongside her husband, Victor, at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills.

Born in Ohio on Christmas Day in 1906, Mrs. Mahony moved to California with her parents, John and Margaret Baron. Her husband took over the family poultry business that her parents started in the San Fernando Valley, and Mrs. Mahony assumed responsibility after her husband’s death in 1959.

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In the late 1960s, Mrs. Mahony served as housekeeper for her son in Fresno when he was pastor of St. Genevieve Parish there.

In describing the day that her 12-year-old son announced he wanted to become a priest, Mrs. Mahony once told The Times:

“We thought he was just going through a phase then. Some boys want to become policemen or firemen. Roger wanted to become a priest. We thought he’d get over it.”

In addition to the cardinal, Mrs. Mahony is survived by two more sons, Neil of Newbury Park and Louis of Orange, 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

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