Mary Jane Lundy Mcclain

San Antonio - Lights must have dimmed at chic tourist spots and fine dining establishments around the globe on July 26, when Mary Jane Lundy McClain passed after a long illness. She was 85. The fashionable redhead was an enthusiastic world traveler who was always the center of attention, livening up any gathering with her stories and opinions, facts and wise observations, gained from her globetrotting and life experience.

Born in Lakeland, FL, she moved on to Atlanta and eventually worked for the Centers for Disease Control and took a life-long interest in all things medical. In 1946 she married Ralph E. McClain. That is when her travels really began in earnest. With her husband she lived in a dozen states and foreign countries. She travelled widely in Europe, stopping often in her favorite European city, Venice. One of her favorite quotes said, Open my heart and you will see engraved upon it, "Italy".

Later, she and her husband took a round the world trip where they stopped at cities on every continent. She once teased her husband that she wouldn't feel right until she circled the globe now going the other way.

She was an avid art collector and sometimes artist. She was famous for her beautiful scarves, for her generous and frequent entertaining, and for her instant command of facts and news items. A savvy and brilliant woman she was on the leading edge of information even at her advanced age. She was known for her charitable work, for example she gave thousands of dresses at Easter and Christmas through the years.

She is survived by her children, Mary McClain Blake of San Antonio, Dr. J. Bruce McClain of Lovettsville, VA., by her brother Harry Lundy of Chickamauga, GA., and by her 10 grandchildren who all called her "Gigi".

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

P.O. Box 4072, Pittsfield, MA 01202.

Interment will take place at the Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA.