Irene Bednarek Santo

Irene Bednarek Santo, Esq.

Irene Bednarek Santo, a retired Baltimore attorney, died of heart failure Friday at her home in Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania. She was 74.

Mrs. Santo was born in Koblenz, Germany on March 16, 1946 to Stanislaw and Genowefa Bednarek (nee Matusik), Polish Catholic parents taken into Germany for forced labor. She immigrated to the United States with her family at age 3, moving to Butcher’s Hill in East Baltimore in her early childhood.

The eldest of three children, Mrs. Santo graduated as valedictorian from Seton High School in 1964. She attended the University of Baltimore School of Law at night while working for the Baltimore City Court System.  She graduated first in her class with her Juris Doctorate in 1970, one of only six women in her class. After graduating law school and being admitted to the Maryland bar she served as a law clerk for the Honorable Judge Charles Moylan of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals until her retirement in 1994.

While in college she met her husband, A. Ronald Santo, a Baltimore attorney with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They were married September 3, 1972 and moved to the Ten Hills neighborhood of Baltimore where they raised their two children, Kristina and Ron, Jr.

After losing her husband Ron in 1993 to a sudden heart attack, Mrs. Santo dedicated herself to raising her family.  She devoted the rest of her life to caring for her children, her parents, and eventually her grandchildren.

Mrs. Santo is survived by a daughter, Dr. Kristina Santo Nevy and her husband John Nevy of Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania; a son, A. Ronald Santo Jr. and his wife Dr. Theresa Santo of Baldwin, Maryland; a sister-in-law, Carole Derus of Baltimore; her sisters, Mary Widomski and Teresa Smith of Baltimore; and her beloved grandchildren, John Brent Nevy II, Christopher Ronald Nevy, Emily Campbell Nevy, Katherine Genevieve Santo, John Jackson Santo, Henry Ronald Santo, and a new granddaughter-to-be.

The family will receive visitors on Wednesday and Thursday, October 7th and 8th, from 4-8pm at Kaczorowski Funeral Home, 1201 Dundalk Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21222 and will celebrate her life at a public funeral mass on Friday, October 9th, at 11am at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 408 S. Chester Street, Baltimore, MD 21231. Interment will follow at St. Stanislaus Cemetery, 6515 Boston Street, Baltimore, MD 21222. Memorials may be made in Irene’s name to Holy Rosary Catholic Church.