The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 210

jfiwraimi1; irrrnnnrrm PEOPLE Pittsburgh' 1 IP oucewoman 'w a 1 i 1 i IN By riMiaro GiU Pkm Staff Writer BUSY LIFE. Mrs. Mary O'Rotirlte combined police career with duties as a mother. Mary O'Rourke was a little AJ girl she lived at Montour and 1 Strawberry Way just around the corner from the old No. 1 Pvlice Station.

And after class let out at Epiphany School each day she would make a bee-line for Cherry Alley to play with the other neighborhood children. The policemen often came out to play with them and sometimes they even let Mary and her friends ride on the police wagon as it turned off Strawberry Way and headed down the alley to its shed. "The police station used to be my playhouse," Mrs. O'Rourke fondly re calls. "When I got a little older the men at No.

1 made me the mascot of their baseball team and I used to cheer -thenronut all their games." question or a person come to report a loved one missing. And she makes certain that no matter how long a person has been listed as missing he is not forgotten by her bureau. Since taking charge on March 17, 1954, Captain O'Rourke has Instituted a system of reviewing all files at least once a week. And the women detectives must regularly-search for and check out new leads In each case assigned to them. There is good reason why the bureau managed to locate 1783 out of a total of 1823 missing persons cases handled last year.

Today she is still actively rooting for the police department team. Only not on the baseball diamond but on the job. Among those he helped snare were members of the notorious Sloan Gang and the Blue Bandanna Gang. While Lieutenant O'Rourke was out tracking down criminals, Mary was kept busy at their Beechview -home caring for their growing family. The O'Rourkes had four strapping sons Edward Patrick, Regis, John F.

and James. Tragedy Strikes Then, on May 20, 1936, tragedy struck. Ed O'Rourke, who had partially recovered from a stroke six years before, died suddenly at his home. A great, numbing sorrow gripped his family. "Ed had always been so alive so fearless.

I guess he just never thought about death, never thought he'd die. The grief still creeps into Mary O'Rourke's voice after 20 long years. Left alone with four boys to look after the youngest just eight and the eldest not yet out of high school Mrs. O'Rourke cast about for a way to keep her family together. Ed had left no insurance and the problem of caring for her sons was an immediate and pressing one.

So two weeks after her husband's death she Joined the police force's Missing Persons Bureau as a woman detective at a salary of $125 a month. Successfully combining her career as a policewoman with her duties as a mother, Mrs. O'Rourke somehow managed to bring up her boys while working on a Job that often required around-the-clock She saw to it that all four of her sons went to college. And all of them have served In the Armed Forces each in a different branch. Edward P.

O'Rourke Jr. graduated from Duquesne University and is now a commander in the Navy, stationed as finance officer at the Mechanicsburg Naval Depot. Regis attended Carnegie Tech, won a Distinguished Service Cross while flying as a bombardier with the Air Force in Europe in World War II and is presently a draftsman with the City Water Department. Jim served in the Army, went on to become captain of the football team at North Carolina State, earn his engineering degree and become a sales engineer in Philadelphia. John is now attending Indiana Tech after serving a hitch in the Marines.

"People ask me how I did it," their mother says with a proud smile. "I have to tell them 'please don't even ask me because I don't know myself." In her work, Captain O'Rourke has applied the same quiet courage, perseverance and deep humanity that enabled her to successfully bring up her family. She shows a real sympathy and understanding for the people who come into her office, whether it be a criminal she has to And Mary O'Rourke is no mere mascot any more but Captain O'Rourke, chief of the Missing Persons Bureau and the women's detective squad which works out of the "new" No. 1 Station on Short Street The years betwen have been full ones for Mrs. O'Rourke.

After finishing school, Mrs. O'Rourke (then Mary Garone) went to work as an operator for the Bell Telephone Co. Walking to and from work she passed old No. 1 Station and often she'd stop to chat with her old friends on the force. One day she was introduced to Ed O'Rourke, an up-and-coming young cop working the traffic detail.

They started going together and even during their courtship Ed gave Mary many an anxious moment. Fierce Gun Battle While directing traffic at Grant Street and Boulevard of the Allies one afternoon Ed O'Rourke engaged in a fierce gun battle with, a fugitive bandit. The bullets flew fast and furious as motorists scurried for cover. When the smoke cleared the bandit was dead. For this battle Ed received the Police Department's first gold medal for bravery.

Not long after Ed was made a detective and in two years he and Mary were married at Epiphany Church. "Ed and the other detectives were like a bunch of college boys in those days," Captain O'Rourke recalls. "They never knew what it was to quit. They'd go out after some criminal and they'd keep after him until they got him." That was how Ed O'Rourke won his lieutenancy and the title "Pittsburgh's champion bandit catcher." He was credited with capturing more criminals than any other man of his day on the force. Many Duties However, Captain O'Rourke's police work is not confined to missing persons.

The women in her bureau, which is under the aegis of Asst. Supt. Adam Gelsler, are called on to assist in all types of cases. They serve as decoys in extortion probes, keep wary eyes out for shoplifters in the city's stores, play important roles in crackdowns on gamblers and fortune tellers, aid In the continuing war against narcotics. Over the years, Captain O'Rourke has come in contact with countless hardened criminals.

But she has never once "handled anyone who really got very difficult or tried any rough stuff." Sometimes during interrogations a suspect may clam up. "But I've always been able to talk to them and straighten them out make them see that it's to their own advantage to co-operate." With a job that makes constant demands on her time, Captain O'Rourke finds little room in her life for hobbles. "I have enough of a hobby keeping track of my four sons and my Ave grandchildren," she laughs. But she -does enjoy raising flowers and Is quite proud of the rose garden at her Beech-view home, a trim five-room house she takes care of herself. However, the garden and the housework often have to wait when Mary O'Rourke is kept working late on a case.

She doesn't mind though, and no one has ever heard her complain. "Police work is a part of me," she smiles. "I've always loved it and I hope to continue in it as long as I am able." 3 73 "-3 Pogt 6 Th Pittsburgh Press, Sunday, May 5, I9S7.