Mary Jane Gregory

She was born Mary Jane Mansholt on April 12, 1933 in Terre Haute, IN. She was preceded in death by her parents, George H. and Susan Mansholt and her sister, Patricia Sharp. She graduated from Wiley High School in 1951 and spent 5 years employed by The Morris Plan in Terre Haute. She married John W. Gregory on October 23, 1955 and is survived by him, her children Cynthia Lynn (Nelson) Knudsen and Robert John Gregory and four grandchildren, Cierra (Jeff) Larson of Bedford, OH, Zachary Knudsen, Kirstin Knudsen and Cole Knudsen, all of Berea OH.

After their marriage, Jane and John lived for about a year in Indianapolis, IN and for two years in Alexandria, VA while he was stationed at Fort Belvoir, VA, where John went to fulfill his obligation following four years in ROTC while in college at Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute. Not one to sit at home, Jane took a job at Fort Belvoir doing clerical work during that two years. Likewise, upon their move to Cleveland in 1958, when John found employment at NASA, Jane also found a job at NASA working in the Procurement Branch and worked there for 5 years. She always kept busy taking care of her family and home and doing volunteer work at the Southwest Hospital and downtown being a "Red Coat" at the Playhouse Square for many years. She also loved to do hand work and sewing. She used a special sewing machine to create decorations of all kinds and sew them on sweat shirts. She also played the piano and soon wanted an organ to play at home. When she wasn't doing any of these things, she found time to tend the roses that were planted around the house.

Jane was always good at card games and board games but when she learned to play bridge while John was in the Army, that soon became an obsession. She played bridge at the Southland YWCA for many years and later began to teach entry level bridge at the Y. In 1985 she started planning, organizing and conducting 2 or 3-day bridge bus trips that were sponsored by the Y. These trips of 40 to 50 women bridge players were within about 500 miles to places of interest but the time was spent mostly in playing bridge. These annual trips went on for 19 years. Jane and John also took more advanced bridge lessons and started competing in sanctioned duplicate games. They traveled to various other cities to enter bridge tournaments, once going to Hawaii and playing bridge there. Their trip to Las Vegas netted them several gold points, not at the casino but at the bridge table. Jane became a bridge Life Master in 1993 and eventually earned a total of over 800 master points.

Visitation Thursday May 30, 2024, 4-8pm at Craciun Funeral Home 14925 Bagley Rd. Middleburg Hts.

Ohio, 44130. All Funeral Services Friday at 11am at Middleburg Hts. Community United Church of Christ

7165 Big Creek Pkwy, Middleburg Hts. Ohio 44130. PLEASE MEET AT CHURCH. Burial at Woodvale Cemetery.