Picture courtesy of Dickelle Fonda

Mary & Dickelle

Mary Cuddihy Fonda Diefendorf
Photo courtesy of Dickelle Fonda

Mary Cuddihy Fonda Diefendorf

NELLISTON - Mrs Mary Diefendorf, 61, of Nelliston, died at her home late Saturday afternoon after an illness of four months. She was born December 15, 1924, in Troy. the daughter of Joseph Cuddihy and Alice Millmgton, Hoosick Falls. A graduate of St Mary's High School in Hoosick Falls, she began a professional music career in Albany and later under the name of Mary Maloy was a featured vocalist in the orchestras of Abe Lyman, Mai Hallett, Joe Sanders and others during the Big Band Era. In 1945, she married .Richard Fonda, Cherry Valley, who played trumpet in the Sanders Band and in the late 1940s, the couple moved to Fort Plain where Mary Maloy and Her Men of Note were favorites of dancers in the Mohawk Valley for a number of years. Mr. Fonda died in December, 1973. She was married to Robert H. Diefendorf, Fort Plain, on June 11, 1976. Mrs. Diefendorf was a trustee of the Fort Plain Free library and a member of the auxiliary unit of Mohawk Valley Post No. 3275, Veterans of Foreign Wars. She also was a member of St. James Catholic Church and had taught catechism classes at the church. In addition to her husband she is survived by two sons, Joseph Fonda, Middletown, Conn., and Jeffrey Fonda, Nelliston; a daughter, Ms. Dickelle Fonda-Simmons, Evanston, IL.; two grandsons, Richard Joseph and Jesse Fonda, and a granddaughter, Corriene Fonda; a brother, Raymond Cuddihy, East Syracuse; aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins. The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated by the Rev. John Roos, pastor of St James Church, at the church on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Funeral arrangements were in charge of the Gray Funeral Home. Interment will be made in the spring in the Fort Plain Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Fort Plain Free Library, Willett Street, or the Mid-County Volunteer Ambulance Service, Canajoharie.
Press Post — Wednesday, March 13. I985