Marian Bertotti

Dr. Marian Lee Bertotti died on April 9, 2020 at her home in Piney Flats, Tennessee, shortly after her 80th birthday. Marian was the daughter of the late George and Dorothy Bertotti and sister to Sue Bertotti Price and Kathy Bertotti Araujo. Born in Oakland, California in 1940, raised in the Bay Area, she was a graduate of Hayward High School in 1958, and the University of Southern California in 1962 where she majored in Political Science. She did her post graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley in Secondary Education. She taught high school History and French in the Anaheim, California for 18 years before courageously pursuing her real dream of becoming a medical doctor. After receiving her MD, she was licensed to practice medicine in New York State, California and Tennessee. She chose Tennessee because she felt she could be of greater use there than in the big cities of the other two states.

And what a doctor she was! Beloved by her patients, friends and family and respected by her colleagues, Dr. Bertotti practiced family medicine in Johnson City, Tennessee for over 35 years. She loved her work, and her family was incredibly proud of her for her determination to do what she loved. She was still seeing patients until about two weeks before her death.

She was a loving aunt to 5 nephews and 2 nieces and great-aunt to 4 great-nephews and 5 great-nieces, and will be remembered for her love, kindness, generosity and her penchant for imaginative and sometimes bizarre gift giving. She shopped year-round and built a treasure trove of toys and clothes and candy to choose from for her nieces and nephews. There was no holiday too small, no telling what a package from Mimi, as she was known to her family, might hold, and there was always great glee when that package arrived.

We will miss her terribly.

The family requests that memorial donations be made in Dr. Bertotti’s name to Good Samaritan Ministries, 100 N Roan St, Johnson City, TN 37601 or a philanthropy of your choice. A Celebration of Life will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Johnson City, Tennessee at a later date.