Mary Ellershaw Heckendorn died as she lived, with dignity and grace,
at age 87 on July 9, 2004 in Moscow, Idaho of complications from a
fall.  She was born to Robert and Mary Ellershwaw in September of
1916.  Her youth was spent on the family farm in Anne Arundel County,
Maryland with her sisters Genie and Robin.  She graduated from
Annapolis High at age 16 and was awarded a scholarship to Watson
Secretarial School in Baltimore.  During the depths of The Depression,
she took a job in the circulation department of the Enoch Pratt Free
Library beginning her long association with writing and books.

There in Baltimore she met James Duff, a chemist and amateur painter.
On April 19, 1936, they were married and moved to Montclair, New
Jersey, where she worked in the Newark Public Library.  Mary and Jim
loved to go to museums, art galleries, coffee houses and enjoyed
sailing their boat on the Chesapeake Bay.

Early in 1943, Jim contracted tuberculosis, and died later that year.
In November of 1943 she joined the Women's Army Corps (WAC).  
After basic training she worked in the
libraries of Madison Barracks, New York and Fort Hancock, New Jersey
where she wrote a column for the post newsletter, "The Fog Horn".

Feeling the call to serve, she applied for overseas duty.  She went to
boot camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia in the summer of 1944.  She
crossed the Atlantic on the RMS Queen Elizabeth that had been
converted to a troop carrier.  She crossed to France on a channel
steamer landing on Omaha Beach five months after D-day, then on to
Paris.

There she was a clerk-typist in the office of the Information and
Education Division of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expedition
Forces).  I&E personnel worked for Stars & Stripes, Army Talks and in
entertainment support.  On Bastille Day, July 14, 1945, she was chosen
as one of 90 WACS to march in the Paris parade.  It was during the
post parade inspection that she met Charles de Gaulle.

After the war she accepted employment with Stars and Stripes in
Frankfurt and later Altdorf, Germany.  There she attended, for a day,
the trial of the eleven principal war criminals at Nuremberg.

In Paris, MaryShe met Dale Heckendorn, who worked for Stars and Stripes.
They were married September 7, 1946 in Annapolis, Maryland.  They
moved to Graham, Texas to work on a weekly paper.  Then to "The
Nashville Tennessean" where she worked on the society pages.  They
moved to Dayton, Ohio, and the "Dayton Shopping News" where she was
given free rein to write a weekly light-hearted column.  With the
birth of her son, Robert, she quit and hired the young and creative
Erma Bombeck as her replacement.

Norman, Oklahoma became Mary's home for 48 years.  There Dale became
the managing editor of the "Norman Transcript".  She wrote a weekly
column similar to the Dayton column for the Transcript for the next 12
years.  At the same time she went to the University of Oklahoma's
professional writing school and began selling stories to confession
magazines.  She sold between two and three hundred in her writing
career. 

Dale died on November 25, 1968.  Mary went to work at University of
Oklahoma and ended up staying for 15 years.  She helped write a
handbook for incoming freshmen and produced a newsletter for parents.
She served six years on the Norman Planning Commission and six years
on the Board of the Sooner Theatre.  She was a long-time member of the
National League of American Pen Women and had taken part in their
annual workshops.

In 2003 she moved with her cat, Spot, from her beloved Norman and many
long time friends to be near her son in Moscow, Idaho.  She loved
the rural beauty of Moscow and resided in the apartments of
Good Samaritan Village.

She is survived by her son, Robert, and his wife, Marilyn, and her
sister, Robin.  A memorial service will be held at St. Michael's
Episcopal Church in Norman on July 31 at 11am.  Her ashes will be
scattered on the Chesapeake Bay that she loved.

Throughout her life she never lost her love of books and reading.  A
memorial fund has been created at the Norman Public Library.  Make
checks payable to the Norman Public Library and the check memo to read
Mary Heckendorn Memorial Fund and send them to:

 Norman Public Library
 c/o Mary Heckendorn Memorial Fund
 225 North Webster Avenue 
 Norman, OK  73069