Anita Mardesich, a San Pedro and descendent of the family that founded Star Kist Fisheries in the port town, has died. She was 101.
Mardesich was born Aug. 28, 1924, in Los Angeles, and was the second child of immigrant parents Andrew and Maria (née Chaidez) Fistonich. Her father, a native of the Isle of Hvar, in the Republic of Croatia, founded Star Fisheries in 1921 and was a pioneer of the commercial fish markets now located at 22nd Street in San Pedro.
Her mother escaped the reign of Pancho Villa when she emigrated from Mexico in 1918.
Mardesich, who died late last month, grew up in San Pedro and attended 15th Street Elementary, Richard Henry Dana Junior High and San Pedro High schools. She graduated high school in 1942.
Growing up, she often worked in the family business, along with her sister and brother.
After her high school graduation and during World War II, she worked for the then-combined Army Air Force at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro; the Naval Station at Terminal Island; the Regan Forge Agency, a family business at the foot of Knoll Hill next to Todd Shipyard in San Pedro; and at Starkist Fisheries on Terminal Island.
She married Nick Mardesich in 1952 at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in San Pedro.
Their son and only child, Nick Mardesich Jr., was born in 1953.
While she was raised in Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, she became an active parish member of Holy Trinity after her marriage and worked alongside her husband in several business enterprises that culminated with their own fish market, American Fisheries, on 22nd Street. The family lived in the South Shores area of San Pedro, which is where she still lived at the time of her death on Feb. 24.
Mardesich was an advocate of local history and the community, a member of the Dalmatian American Club and a founding member of the San Pedro Peninsula Cancer Guild. With her sister, she was also a supporter of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
She shared her story as part of the town’s oral history project, “Stories of Los Angeles Harbor Area For Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” (You can find it at storieslaharborarea.com.) She shared memories of growing up in the Great Depression, as well as other stories, and often reflected on her parents’ immigrant history, friends said. Her father also helped sponsor immigrants form his native Croatia who were coming to the United States.
Mardesich was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her son, and siblings Helen (Fistonich) DiMaggio and Andrew Fistonich, Jr.
She is survived by three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, along with many nieces and nephews.
“I think how wonderful and carefree we were,” she was quoted in the Random Lengths News on the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2024. “How wonderful everything was and our parents, not that we never thought of money, (but) it’s always having each other, loving one another, doing for one another.”
A funeral mass will take place at 10 a.m. Thursday, March 12, at Holy Trinity Church, 1292 W. Santa Cruz Street, in San Pedro. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, at McNerney’s Mortuary, 570 W. Fifth St.
Private interment will be at Green Hills Memorial Park, 27501 S. Western Ave., in Rancho Palos Verdes.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in her memory to Mary Star of the Sea High School, 2500 N. Taper Ave., San Pedro, 90731; the San Pedro Peninsula Cancer Guild, 1536 W. 25th St., No. 524, San Pedro, 90732; and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (dedication gift in her name), P.O. Box 1000, Dept. 142, Memphis, TN, 38148.