Mary Petway Gallant
OBITUARY
Mary Petway Gallant passed away peacefully in her sleep on Saturday, December 20, 2025, after a five-year battle with Lewy Body Syndrome. Her final residence was at Ivy Park at Otay Ranch in Chula Vista, California. She is survived by her husband and partner of forty-one years, Thomas William Gallant; her two sons, Jon C. Bussey and Matthew William Bussey; and their families. Also surviving her are her sister, Elizabeth Quintero, and her niece and nephews, Kristin Iden, Peter Kulig, Guillermo Quintero, Alejandro Quintero, and Raphael Quintero, and their families.
Mary was born in Dade City, Florida, on January 12, 1944, and this was just one of the many stops in her life. She was a “Navy brat” who spent her adolescent and early teen years on the move. Her father, William Petway, was a lieutenant in the Navy, and according to Mary’s count, she, her mother, Elizabeth Evans, and her sister, Elizabeth, moved thirteen times in fourteen years. Her peripatetic ways continued throughout her life. She held a B.A. in Spanish and dance from Florida State University, an M.A. from Rollins College, and a master’s in library science from the University of South Florida. She also had formal training in photography, graphic arts, and genealogy. In 1984, she enrolled in doctoral studies in Victorian Literature at the University of Florida, where she met her husband, Thomas, a professor in the History Department. Together they lived and worked at universities in Greece, England, Canada, and the US.
A person of many talents and a restless spirit, Mary had multiple careers as a writer, an editor (A Feminist Case Study in Transnational Migration: The Anne Jemima Clough Diaries. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), a dancer, a graphic artist who ran her own company, GallantGraphics, a certified genealogist, and a reference and an acquisitions librarian and an operation manager at the Smathers Library at the University of Florida, the Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego, and the Cal Western Law School Library in San Diego.
Mary had an unusual ability to make people feel at ease. Within minutes of meeting her, they would become friends and confidants. She maintained friendships with people from around the globe. She was a great lover of animals and adored her canine family: Chloe, Racer, Rosie, Sadie, Sabrina, and Marley, the last two accompanied us to Athens, Greece, from 2016 to 2018.