Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Mary Louise Masi was one of the most extraodinary people I've ever known. My grandmother, Mimi Becker, cherished her as a best friend. When my grandmother passed in 1997, Louise and I vowed to remain in touch, and we did. She was famous and didn't even know it for being the legendary photographer Irving Penn's hand retoucher. She was a star at Conde Nast in their halcyon days. I knew her as the vibrant leader of the Young Artists Competition in the Five Towns. A lover of classical music, she couldn't have been more proud of the hundreds of young people who played in the annual concert and won the awards. Louise was too humble to take credit for almost anything, but she was a superstar. It's an understatement to say she will be sorely missed.
