Mary Carolyn Pugmire Stoy

Born Mary Carolyn Weller in Pocatello, Idaho on April 23, 1933 -- a birthday she shared with William Shakespeare -- she was known as Mimi to family and friends after her younger sister, Joy, gave her the name as a toddler. Mimi was the second of four children born to Lynn Daniel Weller and Martha Lauretta Wray Weller. She was preceded in death by her sister Ilene Weller, her husband Donald McKay Pugmire, her brother Danny Weller (Lynn Daniel, Jr.), her parents, her daughter Carrie Pugmire Gifford, her husband Charles Stoy, and Mr. Shakespeare.

Mimi suffered from rheumatic fever as a child and was bed-ridden for nearly a year during recovery. The illness left her with a life-long tendency for fatigue, with which she struggled for years. It may have also contributed to hearing loss, which affected her life from her 30s on.

Despite this disruption to her education, she graduated on time from Pocatello High School in 1951, where she was the valedictorian. At Poky High she was active in Pep Club, Girls Council and Choir. During this time she became an accomplished organist and would later recount with pride and clear enjoyment the years she spent throughout her life as an organist in the LDS Church.

Mary Carolyn continued her education at Idaho State College, later Idaho State University, and then Brigham Young University. In those days she met, and became engaged to, “a very fine LDS boy” (her written words describing the time), Don Pugmire. She and Don shared a native artsiness, being native Pocatellans, and commitment to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She finished her degree at BYU via correspondence so that she and Don could marry in the Idaho Falls Temple on June 18, 1954, in time for his assignment in the Navy to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

She became a mother on October 13, 1955 when she and Don welcomed David McKay to this world and their family. They later would become parents to Paul Edward, Carolyn and Merrill Clark. Through her many accomplishments and successes, this would remain her greatest work.

Mary Carolyn returned to Provo, Utah when Don completed his naval service and secured a position as the studio photographer at BYU. This would remain Don’s profession and Mary Carolyn fit right in as the coloring artist for black and white portraiture when Don and Mary Carolyn returned to Pocatello to open their own photography business in 1963.

Her strength would be tested to its limits when Don was killed in a one-car accident in Montana in May of 1968, leaving Mary Carolyn a widow and single mother of four at age 35. She responded with what were unmistakable themes of her life: optimism and grit.

She began her graduate studies at Idaho State University and was among the largest class of instructor hires at Ricks College in 1969, becoming a professor of Child Development and Family Relations. Moving her young family to Rexburg, Idaho, Mary Carolyn completed her Masters Degree at ISU the following year, commuting the 80 miles between Rexburg and Pocatello.

Ricks College would become the basis of her career and Rexburg the hometown to her children. During these years she was the director of the Child Development Lab at Ricks, wrote six books on child development, raised her kids and became integrated in the community.

In 1983, her and Don’s Poky High friend, Charlie Stoy, came knocking on her door, literally, and their second-life courtship became the marriage that would carry them through their retirement years.

Mary Carolyn and Charlie lived in Arizona, Idaho and Utah and traveled a great deal together. Their time in Arizona would be particularly poignant when Carrie died in 2004 and they were there to help Carrie’s family. She was widowed a second time when Charlie died in 2008.

Mary Carolyn is survived by her sister Joy, son David (Anne), son Paul (Brooke), son Merrill (Karalee), 10 grandchildren and 23 great grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 11, 11:00 am at Family Funeral Care in Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park, 13001 South 3600 West in Riverton, Utah. She will be interred at Mountain View Cemetery, 1520 South 5th Avenue in Pocatello Idaho on Monday, April 13, 12:00 noon.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers you take a child for ice cream, sing with them and really listen to what they have to say.