Mary Lynn Werthwine

Mary Lynn (Danielson) Werthwine was born in Bell, California on December 27, 1946. She graduated from Warren High School in Downey in 1964. After graduation, she travelled solo to the Hawaiian Islands. This was her first flight and first real trip, and it ignited a lifetime passion for travel, as well as a love for the Hawaiian Islands. This passion for travel took off further after her career at Continental Airlines did. She was a proud employee of the company. She worked hard, long hours, and the reward was exactly what she wanted - the ability to travel nearly every chance she got.

And Mary did not travel as the average person does. She adventured. Explored. Went off the beaten path to islands and countries that most people have never even heard of today, let alone in the 70s and 80s. She told tales of landing on small coral reef landing strips that one would think were much too small for modern jet airliners, and of getting stuck in Africa in the midst of civil wars and military coups. She recounted stories of friends that she around the world. Food and drink always played an important role.

She loved all animals (except for monkeys… she never failed to mention that) and had many beloved pets in her life. From her early days in Kenya helping to protect a critical giraffe habitat, to her involvement volunteering (and later working with NOAA) to protect the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals on Kauai, she campaigned tirelessly for wildlife conservation.

Everything Mary did, she did wholeheartedly. And she made it fun. A difficult travel day? She made the most of it. Four long winters (not years) spent living in frigid Minnesota? She made the most of it. Testing positive for Covid on Mother’s Day and eating tacos and drinking canned margaritas while isolated in a hotel room? She made the most of it. Wherever she ended up, she found, and spread, joy. Even in her last weeks in the hospital, she connected with her doctors and nurses, telling stories, making them laugh.

Mary and her husband, Barry, met at their mutual friends’ wedding and quickly bonded after learning they both “knew” Jimmy Buffett. Barry also worked for the airlines and loved travel, adventuring, and having fun. They married in a small ceremony in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 2, 1982, and their daughter, Jamie Lynn, was born in March of the following year.

She was the kind of person who made immediate and intimate friendships with people her whole life. She loved her family, and cherished the short time she had to watch her granddaughter, Clara Lynn, grow and learn.

Mary passed away peacefully at Wilcox Hospital on Kauai on July 20, 2025. Barry, Jamie, Clara, and her son-in-law Charles were all there to spend time with her in the days immediately before her death. She was also blessed with visits, phone calls, and texts from her many friends on and off island. She will be dearly missed, and remembered as a beautiful woman in body and spirit.

In the words of Captain Tony, as told by Jimmy Buffett, “I ate the last mango in Paris, took the last plane out of Saigon, took the first fast boat to China, and Jimmy there’s still so much to be done.”