Mary Temple

Mary Temple, 92, of Las Vegas, NV, passed away on Sunday, January 17, 2021. She was born in Vienna, Austria on March 21, 1928 to Victor and Hilda Lazansky (nee Zeilinger). At the age of ten, she and her parents escaped Vienna to Shanghai. There she lived in the Shanghai Ghetto under Japanese occupation. In 1948 she married Harold Temple in Shanghai and moved to the United States. She was an Air Force spouse and raised three children. She was a volunteer in her community where she served as the school’s First Aid Gray Lady, PTA Board member, Girl Scout Leadership and served in the base chapel children’s program. She made lifelong friendships with neighbors from the many military bases. Mary was a devoted wife and faithfully baked apple pies that some say launched the spacecraft successfully at Cape Canaveral.

Despite the hardships of her youth, she was a positive, helpful and caring person. Mary was devoted to family and treasured family gatherings. She crocheted hundreds of blankets for the Paralzed Veterans and donated many hours to sharing her Holocaust experience with Clark County School District students. Mary contributed artifacts to the Simon Wiesenthal Museum in Los Angeles and is recorded through the Steven Spielberg Oral History project at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.

Mary is preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Kitty Mizrahi, and her beloved husband, Harold of 60 years. Mary is survived by her three children: Rochelle (John) Gray, Terry (Thomas) Bobo and Robert (Tammy) Temple. She had 6 granddaughters who loved their Omi: Amy & Ruth, Leah & Lindsey, Jennifer & Colby. 13 great grandchildren: Graham, Madeline, TC, Mia, Liam, Dylan, Cordelia, Lincoln, Ashlyn, Luciana, Ethan, Jack and Micah.

Mary will be buried at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, NV on February 12, 2021