Mary Ann Christy

Mary Ann Laycock was born at home on the family farm in England. As owners of the bobbin mill near Keighly, their home was the first in the district to have the luxury of electric lights. Growing up, Mary's academic achievements were high enough to enable her to enroll as a university student. She pursued a degree in art, up to the start of World War II. To aid the war effort, she volunteered in the Woman's Land Army specializing in rodent control. Mary met and dated her future husband, then U.S. Army Capt. William Christy. Capt. Christy showed up one day and told her she had to marry him because he was on a three day pass for that purpose and the Army would court martial him if she didn't. Following the war she joined her husband in Klamath Falls arriving in August. Coming from the cool climate surrounding England she would later describe her first home as, " . hotter than the fires of hell." Mary followed her husband from town to town as he pursued his career as a forester, setting up 21 homes in 25 years, while working retail sales. She also worked at the radar installation then located near Kelso, Wash. With motherhood, she concentrated her efforts on homemaking. An accomplished seamstress, she made all the children's clothing and was an avid gardener. With the children grown, Mary and her husband traveled, visiting China, New Zealand, returned to England, drove the ALCAN highway north to Alaska, and the usual vacation haunts like Hawaii and Yellowstone. Mary worked hard, played hard and was fiercely independent. Her life spanned the technology of the horse and buggy to the Space Shuttle and she would often say, "I wonder what's next." She is survived by her brother, Joe Laycock; sister, Marion Pennington; son, Steve Christy; daughter, Bronwyn Fearey; grandchildren; and extended family. Arrangements through Skyline Memorial Gardens 503-292-6611.

Published in The Oregonian on February 25, 2010