Mary Pilkington Hills

Mary Pilkington Hills, mother of eight children, grandmother of 24, great grandmother to 18, sister to Joseph Pilkington and Jeanne Oesterreich, and the wife of the late Arthur Hills, died peacefully in her sleep on December 27, 2025, at the age of 94.

Born in Alton, Illinois, Mary moved to Toledo when she was 7 and enjoyed what she described as a pleasant childhood - devoid of (teenage) conflict or strife, and never feeling like she was lacking or wanting more from life than she already had. A graduate of St. Ursula Academy and Toledo University, Mary retained lifelong friends from her youth, taught school as a young adult, and enjoyed the arts throughout her life - especially classical music, which she played proficiently on the piano for seven decades.

Throughout her life Mary was cheerful, pleasant, upbeat about life, appreciative of her blessings, and often dispensing innocuously sound advice to her children, such as "moderation
in all things". At the same time, she was determined and unassumingly resolute, indefatigable, and unvanquishable in the face of adversity, of which she had her share. She was both sweet and stalwart, a good friend, and a warrior - a rare woman.

Mary loved raising her children and loved having a large family. Despite preparing some 200,000 meals, washing over 80,000 pairs of underwear, cleaning who knows how many toilets, attending who knows how many sporting events, nursing 50 years of colds, flus, other illnesses and battered egos, receiving scant credit for her offsprings’ successes and plenty of blame for their shortcomings, and offering daily prayers for everyone under her umbrella - she never seemed too tired or the least bit unwilling to take on the next responsibility. Being grateful, doing
her best, enjoying her bounty, and moving forward was her style.

As her children grew older, Mary became increasingly involved in St. Joseph’s Parish (including a long stint as a lector at Sunday mass), and at Lourdes University, where she eventually became chair of the Lourdes University Board of Trustees. Still, she remained a sweet and endlessly supportive mother to us all, whether it was counsel or encouragement or driving across the country – with a casserole in tow – after the birth of one of her grandchildren.

Gradually, the vibrant joy of raising her family as a young woman gave way to the respite of her golden years. Mary enjoyed her little slice of heaven on Little Road, and for years, the family house at Lake Farwell, soaking up the beauty and quiet of each, and catching up on long overdue rest. In a fitting blessing, Mary enjoyed contentment in the final years of her life, as she was fiercely and lovingly cared for by her youngest, Jenny, whom she bore at the spright age of 47 – twenty-three years after giving birth to her first child while living in Germany.

Mary is predeceased by her parents, Lee and Madelin Pilkington, her husband, Arthur, and her sons Stanley and Steven. She is survived by her children John (Michelle), Lee (Lisa), Julie Tucker (John), Joseph (Mary), Benjamin (Lisa Morgan), Jenny Kraus (Eric), and her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Mary’s life will be celebrated with a funeral mass at St. Joseph Church in Sylvania on Friday, January 2, 2026 at 11:00. Visitors will be received before mass in the church vestibule beginning at 10:00. There will be a luncheon directly after the mass in the St. Joseph parish center.  In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to Lourdes University or St. Ursula Academy or a charity of he donor’s choice.

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