Mary E. Wolfe

She was born Mary Esther Gaines on June 11, 1916 in a little house on the prairie near Redwater, Montana. She was 101 and 1/2 years old when she died, and she was smart and funny to the very end of all those years. Even at that age, she still had lots of friends who visited her often. Most of them were a good deal younger than she, but they liked her company. Her family thanks them for their loyalty and kindness.

She liked to spot new people at church and sit down beside them and say, “Hi. I’m Mary Wolfe, and I haven’t seen you here before. Is this your first time?” Then she’d welcome them, and get to know them, and they’d remember it years later. “It was Mary Wolfe who first made me feel welcome,” they’d tell people. Her husband, Clinton D. Wolfe, used to do that, too. Both of them were Deacons and then Elders at Second Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Mo. Clint supervised or taught in the Sunday School for decades; Mary was an active member of committees; the church was their village.

Mary was a grade school teacher, mostly in Kansas City, Ks., for 32 years. She was the youngest of three smart sisters who each graduated from college-what was then the Missouri State Teachers College in Springfield-when that was a remarkable thing for one girl to do, much less all three in a family. Mary went on to earn a Masters degree from what was then UMKC, and then she just kept learning. She had one hobby: reading. When she was 99 she was still attending four book clubs.

She and Clint met at a bridge party, fell in love, and eloped because at that time teachers were not permitted to marry and would be fired if they did. So they kept their wedding secret during the workweeks and escaped to Joplin, Mo. to be together on weekends. When the rules changed that year, they finally got to live together. During WWII, Mary worked with other young women making engines for bombers, at the Pratt &Whitney plant in Kansas City, Mo. That job ended about the same time the war did, and with the birth of their only child, Nancy Jo, in 1945.

During their long marriage, Mary and Clint square-danced, they acted in the Senior Barn Players, played bridge and Scrabble at their friends’ homes, and took hot dishes to potlucks at church. Every summer during Clint’s two-week vacation, they packed their only child into the back seat of the Chevy, with a pillow and a sack of snacks, and took off to see the USA. By the time Nancy was 12, they’d shown her all but one of the states in the lower 48. None of them could remember which one they hadn’t seen.

Mary was a Democrat, a Feminist, and a former union officer. She was an active member of the American Association of University Women and of the late, great Women’s City Club. Prior to joining Second Pres, Mary and Clint made their church home at Linwood Presbyterian.

She was an honest, blunt-spoken woman who meant a lot to a lot of people. (She liked to send the minister notes commenting on his sermons.) She had an influence. She had an impact, and she will be missed.

She is survived by her daughter, Nancy Pickard, her grandson, Nicholas Pickard, Nick’s wife, Alexis Paolantonio Pickard, and her great-granddaughter, Eva Ann Pickard. Two weeks after Mary’s 100th birthday, she got to hold one-week-old Evie, and that was a wonderful thing to see.  The family thanks the nursing staff at Brookdale Overland Park for their tender care of our remarkable Mary.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m., Jan. 3, 2018, in the sanctuary at Second Presbyterian Church, 318 E 55th St, Kansas City, MO 64113, (Phone: 816-363-1300).

The family (and Mary) requests no flowers. They suggest donations to the church, or to a charity of your choice.