Merle Margaret Wallach Albano

Albano, Merle Margaret Wallach “Margo”, born December 13, 1941, when her family was living on a farm near Byrnesville, Mo, died Tuesday, January 22, 2019, after being in hospice care at home in Phoenix for two weeks.

Margo died at approximately 8:27 a.m., almost to the minute of the start of her marriage ceremony to Robert Albano on January 22, 1966. The cause of death was multiple myeloma and complications of the disease and treatment. She was 77.

As she passed away, a light wind was flapping the awning on the balcony outside her room, allowing the sun to repeatedly flash on her face. It was a radiant scene. To her husband, her glowing face appeared as it did on their wedding day.

She eventually moved away from the farm, but never shed the ethos of farm and small-town people.

A graduate of Glendale Community College, she was initiated into Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Fraternity of the American Two Year College. Her most recent job before retiring was as an accounting bookkeeper in the Phoenix office of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.

A Requiem Mass will be celebrated in St. Ignatius Chapel at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Phoenix. A viewing in the chapel begins at 9 a.m. Friday, January 25, 2019. Mass will be at 10, and a brief commemoration of her life will be held in a room adjacent to the chapel in the parish center. Her body will be returned to Missouri for Requiem Mass and burial at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church and Cemetery in House Springs, Mo.

Besides her husband, formerly an editor with Arizona Highways, the Arizona Republic and the Tucson Daily Citizen, survivors include son Gregory, daughter-in-law Fongsiene Chang Albano, and grandchildren Nic and Jack, all of Glendale.