Gay Alice Marie Lofgren DiGirolamo

Gay Alice Marie Lofgren DiGirolamo

April 22, 1938 – November 8, 2025

“I know God is real because I feel him in my soul.”

-Mahalia Jackson

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Gay Alice Marie DiGirolamo (Lofgren), 87. She passed away at Emory Hospital surrounded by family and loved ones on November 8th, 2025. Gay is preceded in death by her husband Mario and son Michael. She is survived by daughters Ann (Alex) and Julia, sons Paul (Talya) and Mark, and grandchildren Cristian, Maia, Isaiah, Minnie and Nolan.

Gay was born on April 22, 1938, in Havertown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Of Swedish background and the only child of Alrik Theodore Lofgren and Grace Olive Christine Johnson, Gay excelled in school, was a talented ballerina, and developed a love for music and the violin. Gay attended Barnard College in Manhattan, studying music, French and Italian, and forming valuable lifelong friendships. She went on to earn a master’s degree in Italian from Bryn Mawr College and was fluent in multiple languages. While in New York, she met Mario, a young doctor from Rome doing his medical residency at Columbia, who then became her husband of 55 years. They settled in Atlanta, GA and raised five children (Ann, Paul, Julia, Mark, Michael). The family loved to travel, including trips to Italy to meet the extended family and many camping trips to state and national parks. Gay and Mario continued to travel once the children were grown, exploring the world together, reconnecting with family and heritage, and experiencing other cultures.

Gay’s true passion was music. She was a gifted violinist and violist, playing with the Atlanta Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta Ballet, in church and community orchestras, and with her own quartet of friends called EQ (Eclectic Quartet). Her love of music brought her great joy, and the house was often filled with the melodies drifting from her practice room. She also enjoyed playing the piano, and spent time teaching her children and grandchildren how to play or learning Swedish folk tunes. In addition to raising five children and working as a professional musician, Gay had a rewarding career as a music teacher with the Atlanta Public School system, where she was able to share her talents and love for music and enrich many young lives. Later in life, she developed new passions for bird watching, gardening, and reading, and loved to spend hours on the back porch or patio with a good book, enjoying nature and relaxing in the sun.

Gay was a kind, generous, thoughtful, patient and caring daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, aunt and friend. She was reserved but warm, with a wonderful sense of humor, strong and principled, and an excellent role model for her children, grandchildren and students. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her.

A Memorial Mass will be held at 10 am on Friday, December 12, 2025, at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (353 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, GA 30308). In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Meals on Wheels Atlanta (https://www.mowatl.org/).