Obituary of Mary Alberque Tigh-Dicke

~~It is with quiet sadness that the family of Mary Alberque Tigh-Dicke (age 95) announces her passing on the afternoon of August 18, 2017. Mary died peacefully at Arden Courts, Palm Harbor, Florida.  She had lived for more than thirty years in the nearby town of Clearwater, Florida.
 
Mary, the youngest child of Ernest George (E.G., Sr., ‘Ernie’, ‘GK’) and Antoinette Grossjung Alberque, was the last of her generation of Alberques, being pre-deceased by seven brothers and sisters: Cecilia (Cissy) Alberque Gibbs, E. George Jr., Rose, Paul, Lester, Howard, and Edward.

Mary was born at home at 154 Mount Vernon Street in Ridgefield Park in 1921, attended St. Francis Grammar School in Ridgefield Park, NJ, Academy of the Holy Angels in Fort Lee, NJ, (now Demarest, NJ), and the College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY.  At the time of her birth in 1921, her father was in the silk manufacturing business, owning factories in Passaic and Hoboken, having started by sweeping floors at the age of 13 in a factory in New York.  ‘EG’ and his family became generous benefactors in the village of Ridgefield Park, donating the convent, K of C property (the council is named in his honor), and other tokens of gratitude of his shared success. ‘EG’ and family were members of various civic committees and commissions, as well as the volunteer fire department. Even the women and children in the family, in the early days of firefighting, would get out of bed at night and help pump water when a fire raged.

The Alberque family is shown in the photo section  circa 1937: back row, left to right, Antoinette, E.G. Sr., Mary, Edward, Lester, Loretta (Lester’s wife), George Jr, Flossie (George’s wife), front row, Cecilia, Howard, Marion (Howard’s wife.)

At the age of 23 and at the height of WWII, Mary married William Philip Tigh (‘Bill’), also of Ridgefield Park. Tigh was a pilot in the US Army Air Corps (now the USAF) and was immediately shipped to England. Surviving more than thirty bombing raids over Germany, he returned to NJ where he and Mary lived, with their two daughters, Kathy (Detrano) and Barbara (Puceta) on Fifth Street in Ridgefield Park. In the footsteps of her family’s tradition, Mary gave countless hours of service to St. Francis Grammar School and her church.  Later, she and her husband moved to Succasunna, in Morris County, NJ and became very active in civic affairs there.

Mary is pre-deceased by husband William Tigh and husband Robert Dicke.  She is survived by her two daughters, Mary Kathleen (Kathy) Tigh Detrano (Joseph Detrano) of Florida and Barbara Ann Puceta (Joseph Puceta) of South Carolina, and two grandchildren, Colleen Puceta of North Carolina, and Danielle Puceta of Dallas, Texas.

The family will receive friends and guests at Vorhees-Ingwersen Funeral Home on Sunday afternoon November 12, 4-6pm, 59 Main Street, Ridgefield Park.  No flowers, please.  Instead, the family asks that expressions of condolence be in the form of Mass cards and/or donations to the EG Alberque Sr. Memorial Scholarship Fund, Academy of the Holy Angels, Office of Advancement, 315 Hillside Avenue, Demarest, NJ 07627.  A Mass of the Celebration of Life will be conducted in her honor at St. Francis Church, 144 Mount Vernon Street, Ridgefield Park, on Monday, November 13, at 10 am, followed by a luncheon reception at the K of C Hall, 106 Bergen Avenue, Ridgefield Park. Friends and family are invited to attend. In a private ceremony of the immediate family at St. Joseph Cemetery, Hackensack, Mary’s ashes will be interred with her husband Bill’s, her mother’s and her father’s.  It is time for Mary to go home.