Maria was born in Düsseldorf Germany and raised in Frankfurt am Main, one of three children of Helma (Böhm) and Theodor Rienecker, the founder and president of Germany's Leatherworker's Union until its dissolution by Hitler in 1933. Maria studied to be a kindergarten teacher and at the age of 16, had her first job as the governess for the children of the Baron von Sudhausen at his castle near Ostnabrück. Maria came to America in 1922 when she was 18 and eventually found work as a seamstress. For over twenty years she worked for Reba's Bridal Shop in North Bergen, NJ.

In 1925, she married Honorino Pereira d'Araujo, a native of Ceará-Mirim, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Together they had five children: John, Elsie, Theodore, Robert, and Carl.

Maria was preceded in death by her husband Honorino and her son Theodore. She is survived by her sons John (Grace), Bob, and Carl (Norma), and her daughter Elsie Waite, as well as 9 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

After her husband's death, Maria lived in Tucson, Arizona for almost 30 years; summers were spent visiting family and friends in Germany and New Jersey. In the last years of her life she was a resident of Bryan Manor, an assisted care home in Gladstone, New Jersey. Maria's family would like to express their thanks to Barbara and Noellese at the Manor whose loving care and good humor helped make Maria's last years pleasant ones.

Maria loved beautiful clothes and fine shoes, and was always elegantly dressed in dresses and suits of her own making. She had wondrous skills in knitting, crocheting, embroidery and sewing; in fact Maria had the rare ability to look at a design and sew it without a pattern. Visitors to her little house on Terra Alta couldn't help but notice the huge factory sewing machine in the place of honor under her picture window. Her grandchildren knew not to walk barefoot at grandma's because of stray pins hidden in the carpet. Maria's cooking was simply legendary.

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