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 was a calm, sweet child who excelled in school and was a talented ballerina, dancing all the way up until college. She also developed a love of music and became very talented on the violin.

Gay attended Barnard College in Manhattan, studying music, French and Italian, and forming many lifelong friendships. She went on to earn a master’s degree from Bryn Mawr College and was fluent in French and Italian. While in New York, she met Mario, a young doctor from Rome doing his medical residency at Columbia, who became her husband of 55 years.

Gay and Mario were married in 1963 and lived in New York City where they welcomed their first child, Ann Marie. In 1968, Mario took a teaching and research position with Emory University in Atlanta, GA. They eventually settled in a home in Druid Hills 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 Ballet for multiple seasons, in church and community orchestras, and with her own quartet of friends called EQ (Eclectic Quartet). She combined her love of music and travel, attending music workshops in the US and abroad. Her love of music brought her great joy, and the house was often filled with the melodies drifting from her practice room. She also loved to play the piano and spent time teaching children and grandchildren how to play, as well as reconnecting with her roots through playing old Swedish folk songs.

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. She could finish a book in a few days and read in multiple languages, which always left her children in awe.

Gay was a kind, generous, thoughtful, patient, caring mother, grandmother, wife, 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/).