More Colorful Mary Ann Memories

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More Colorful Mary Ann Memories

Mary Ann with son Jason Kindred

Revised 09/30/2019

At Mary Ann’s first memorial service, friends reminded me of how close we were.

I remembered the first day, back in 2002 when Mary Ann walked into Lone Star as our new freight manager. I could hardly believe she was there. Instantly, I sensed that her conscientiousness would lead to vast improvements within the store and looked forward to establishing a good working relationship & friendship with her. And that’s exactly what happened.

Mary Ann was one of the most sincere and inspiring friends I’ve known. She had a great interest in the community and more importantly in helping to improve our community. She must have known thousands of locals by face and name. She enjoyed music, the arts and, of course, local news. She also was a legendary baker. I remember driving by her classy Terra Cotta Café and seeing her enthusiastically baking away in the window, at 6 a.m. while us insomniac newspapermen navigated through early morning icy roads.

Even when not working, I would occasionally drop by work to strike up a conversation, which almost always led to interesting or surprising subjects. We had shared hundreds of stimulating conversations.

Mary Ann was kind enough to invite me to her and Robbie’s house several times to play badminton with family and friends. It was always a blast and I think she even made a few videos of the intense bird-by-bird flight action. For my second Express column, I gave badminton a small plug, specifically with those good times in mind.I think Mary Ann would find it interesting that in 2020 competitive skateboarding will become an Olympic Event.

As a kind soul who always tried to do the right thing, her pure nature now still resonates through those who were close to her.

I likely spammed her with an overabundance of informative e-mails. Occasionally though, I'd strike a chord and  One was this story about why music sounds so bad now. (That link is gone, but here's a newer similar one) And another was the itty bitty kitty committee.

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M.A. and I sometimes used to joke about Idaho's other famous Mary Anne; the mischievous Mary Anne Summers from Gilligan's Island. I reminded M.A. that the other Mary Anne was renowned for baking scrumptious coconut cream pies. When the news hit that Driggs's Mary Anne was busted for pot and then claimed that some hitchhikers had left it in her ashtray, we had a hearty laugh because everybody knows that hitchhikers simply do not leave behind doobies. Not even Gilligan would have bumbled that badly!

Another key memory was a time Daniella tripped and fell at home in our bathroom, injuring her back enough that she couldn't get up. Dani called me for help, but since I was in Ketchum, I dialed Mary Ann who instantly dropped what she was doing to rush over, along with a friend.


Mary Anne was kind enough to invite me to her and Robbie's Oregon Coast wedding. When I quit my newspaper job on that bright solstice day in 2006, she was the first person I told and she congratulated me sincerely.

The last few weeks, I've had a rush of good memories about her, I miss her very much and as I mentioned before, it helps me to write about her.