Maria Janet Richardson

Maria J Richardson   Sept 2, 1930 - Nov 23, 2024

Maria (Farina) Richardson, 94, of Land O’ Lakes passed away under the care of hospice on November 23, 2024.    

Maria was born in Kingston, New York, the first child of teenage parents Sam and LaVanda Farina during the first year of the Great Depression.   Notable for dropping her tiny statured friend down a laundry chute to gain access to fresh fruit that was locked in the basement, she showed a rebellious spirit early.   

When the family of five moved to Fort Myers during WWII she got in trouble on the city bus when she tried to give her seat to an elderly African American who had just boarded.  

She took flying lessons at 17, aspiring to be a pilot until a fellow student crashed the instructor’s plane.   

She rode on the back of her date’s motorcycle against her father’s orders…and severely burned her calf on the exhaust pipe.  She didn’t tell anyone until the next day at school when a teacher noticed the severe burn and took her to the school nurse.   

She joined the Women’s Air Corps after graduating from high school.  She worked at a Naval Hospital in DC where she met a patient by the name of Sarah Jane Moore…who later gained notoriety for taking a shot at President Gerald Ford.   

By 20 she was living and working in Key West.  In the evenings she was a cocktail waitress in an unfortunately unremembered bar…which is where she met the young Navy man who would stare at her all night while he nursed his single rum and coke.   She found it ‘creepy’…but the strippers who worked in the bar told her she should go out with him…he was a ‘nice boy who goes to church on Sundays’. 

When the nice boy received his orders to transfer to Washington state for his next tour of duty he showed up at her day job and asked her to marry him.  Years later she said she said yes for three reasons…he wasn’t a drinker, she would get to see the world, and she felt sorry for him.   

Whatever the reason, they built a wonderful love story for 64 years, until Alzheimer’s took her love away.  They did travel all over the world as his 27 year Naval career took them from Formosa to Ireland to Australia…with plenty of stateside locations as well.  She was the consummate officer’s wife hosting innumerable bridge parties, welcome dinners and farewell parties.   

Their retirement years were spent in multiple locations around Florida…moving inexorably closer to their only child in Tampa.  Notably she did work at The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach in the late 70s where she met a wealthy young businessman who had inherited wealth and already developed a flair for being wildly ostentatious about it.  She described him as obnoxious, boorish and predatory.  She didn’t like him any better 40 years later.   

In the ten years since her beloved passed she fought her own battle with dementia.   

Maybe it was because she was a premature baby who had to fight to come into this world and stay…but she remained feisty and spicy to the very end.  She loved nothing more than going out to eat…breakfast, lunch or dinner…she was always ready to go out, and particularly enjoyed washing her meal down the a healthy vodka neat on the rocks.  

Maria is predeceased by Malcolm Richardson, her Navy boy of 64 years, her parents Santo (Sam) & LaVanda Farina, and her adored brother Frank Farina. 

She is survived by her sister Faith Goebel (Port St Lucie) and her daughter Joyce Richardson (Lutz) and daughter in law Theresa Mulroney.   Many thanks to Glenda Collazo and Jackie Wyche…you both know why.  💗

At her request, no services are planned, although the newly reunited couple will ultimately be interred in Arlington National Cemetery.  She was absolutely incorrigible about donating to charities in her later years…so if you feel so moved throw a few bucks at an animal, homeless, domestic violence, a children’s charity or hospice and think a warm thought about Maria.