Mary Kearney

Mary E. Kearney, 57, of Oak Harbor

By the time she was 30, Mary Kearney had seen world fairs in Seattle, New York and Montreal. But earlier this year, she experienced the spectacular forests surrounding Echo Bay when boyfriend Ted Zylstra took her on his annual boat excursion to B.C.

With him, she also saw the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza during their recent Husky cruise. She was a lifelong Husky fan. ''Her last weeks of living were like a fantasy,'' said her niece, Janele Hartley, 18.

After years as a human-resources manager in San Diego, Kearney moved to Oak Harbor in 1993 to take care of her elderly mother. She also mothered her niece after her brother John Hartley's wife died.

A graduate of Seattle University, she loved to play golf, weave and take her dog Molly on walks. But her family came first.

A perfectionist, she would tell Janele to sit up straight at the dinner table or to put her napkin on her lap, but Kearney never raised her voice.

''She never shouted at me and never got angry at me,'' Janele said.

Kearney, who had no children of her own, took Janele to buy dresses for school dances and had planned to drive her to her first year at Central Washington University.

Besides her brother and niece, she is survived by another brother, Peter Hartley of Marina, Calif. ? Nicole Tsong