Mary Piasta, motor vehicles manager

Mary Catherine Keeler Piasta of 54 West Branchville Road, former manager of the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles office in Danbury, died Sunday, Nov. 19, at Danbury Hospital. She was 93 years old and the widow of Stanley F. Piasta.
Mrs. Piasta was born on Barry Avenue on Dec. 3, 1906, a daughter of Bernard F. and Mary “Molly” Scanlon Keeler. She grew up here and attended Ridgefield schools.
Mrs. Piasta worked for the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles for 41 years, retiring in the early 1970s as the manager of the Danbury office at the south end of Main Street.
“She got special license plates for a lot of people in Ridgefield,” recalled her niece, Christine Keeler Mitchell of New Fairfield. Mrs. Piasta’s own plate was K4.
Like her husband, who was a police commissioner and deputy sheriff, Mrs. Piasta was active in local Democratic politics. “She loved a good campaign and a good political debate,” said Mrs. Mitchell.
Mrs. Piasta was one of the oldest and earliest members of the OWLS, the local senior citizens organization.
Both she and her husband were animal lovers, and she left behind her pet dog, Sheba.
Besides Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs. Piasta is survived by another niece, Janet Piasta Levchuk of Glen Head, N.Y., and nephews Bernard, William and Robert Keeler, all of Danbury.
A memorial mass will be celebrated Friday, Nov. 24, at 10 a.m. in St. Mary’s Church. Burial will follow in St. Mary’s Cemetery.
There are no calling hours.
Contributions in her memory may be made to the Ridgefield Fire Department Ambulance Fund, 6 Catoonah Street.
The Green Funeral Home in Danbury is in charge of arrangements.