Margaret Anna Mary Baxter

BAXTER, Margaret Anna Mary (nee Allen) – Mary Baxter passed away at home on April 26, 2026. Mary was born in Chilliwack, BC on August 17, 1944, the only child of W. A. (Slim) Allen and May Goodell. The family had a farm in Greendale and she remembered sitting on the roof of the barn in 1948 during the Flood. Mary participated in dance classes and with the Chilliwack Riding Club in her youth before the family moved to Westwold when she was in high school; she graduated from Kamloops High in 1962. Mary started her career as a bank teller while still in high school and worked various secretarial jobs in her early twenties in Kamloops, Calgary, and Salmon Arm. In Calgary she met Richard Clark Baxter and they married in 1968. In Salmon Arm, Mary started working in the health industry as a payroll/lab assistant at Shuswap Lake General Hospital and then transferred to BC Info Health in Vancouver as a System Support Rep in 1976. She would fly around the province training hospital personnel on the new “computerized” HR and Payroll systems and the highlight of working out of her office on Cambie and Hastings was when Burt Reynolds was filming in the alley beside their building. In 1977 Mary and Clark moved back to Chilliwack and had their daughter, Erin. Mary continued to commute to Vancouver until 1990 when she switched over to MSA Hospital in Abbotsford as their Payroll Officer, tired of the drive to the Big City. Mary ended up back in New Westminster during the amalgamation period of Fraser Health Authority and retired as the Pension Specialist for Fraser Health in 2011.

Mary made friends wherever she went and had a quirky sense of humor. She was happiest playing cards with her friends and laughing the night away. Mary hated sewing but was good at it and also tried her hand at making jewellery. She loved to read and spend time with her family and pets. She also had a passion for fashion and shopping a good bargain, so she spent her retirement years working part-time at Marion’s Dressing Room.

Mary was predeceased by her husband, Clark in 2011; her dad in 1987 and her mom in 2013. Mary is survived by her daughter, Erin Baxter and son-in-law Collin Mills; her grandchildren, El, Riley, Imogen and Sholto; many friends and a large extended family of in-laws and cousins. A Celebration of Life gathering will be held at 1st Fairfield Scouts Hall in Chilliwack BC on August 15th from 1 to 4 pm. In lieu of flowers please make a donation to the Canadian Foundation for Vascular