Mary L. Fox, 92, passed away on March 24, 2021, at the Grand Traverse Pavilions, in Traverse City, where she had resided since January 2019. She had broken her femur due to Osteoporosis while rising that morning and Munson Medical Center performed surgery. She was transferred to the GT Pavilions. She had been coping with Alzheimer's/Dementia and this accelerated her condition. She lived at her home for 56 years until moving to the Pavilions.

Mary was born on June 22, 1928, to Justine and Agda Hodges. She was the second of five, two sisters, and two brothers.

She walked over fifteen blocks in town to the old high school. Mary was a tomboy growing up and enjoyed roller skating, ice skating, skiing, and sliding on Diggins Hill in Cadillac. She enjoyed skiing at Caberfae Mountain with her friends and fishing on Lake Cadillac with her Aunt Dena. She traveled by train to Grand Rapids to visit relatives and could travel at a discount because her father was a railroad engineer.

She graduated from Cadillac High School in 1946 and worked several years at B.F. Goodrich in Cadillac until marrying Raymond on June 14, 1952. They were married for almost 62 years until Ray passed away at 92 in April 2014. They lived in Cadillac for a brief time, then Flushing, Marcellus, Three Rivers, and finally to Mesick in 1963 to the dairy farm they purchased and where they raised their three sons, David, Thomas and Johnny.

Mary kept busy raising the boys, taking them to school activities and church, gardening, driving tractors during haying season, caring for young cattle, mowing the lawn, and raising chickens. Many trips were made to pick wild blackberries and strawberries. Homemade bread and canned goods from the large garden provided good meals for her hard working boys and Ray.

Mary was preceded in death by her husband, Raymond; her parents, Justine and Agda Hogdes; her youngest son, Johnny, at age 24 in 1986; her brother, Ken and his wife Margaret; brothers-in-law, Carl Peterson and Joseph Donner; sister-in-law, Phyllis Hodges; and nephew, Mike Hodges.

Surviving are: son, David and wife Margaret; son, Thomas; grandsons, Christopher (Paula) Fox, Andrew (Fiance, Jennifer) Fox; great-grandson, Nicholas; sisters, Frances Peterson and Vivian Donner; brother, David Hodges; and many nieces and nephews.

Her sons would like to acknowledge and thank the workers in the Elm Ward at the Grand Traverse Pavilions and Hospice of Traverse City for the care given to Mary the past two years. Funeral and burial took place on March 28, 2021. Services were limited to family members and relatives. Burial was at Cornell Cemetery in Wexford Township.

"I'd like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun. Of happy memories that I leave when my life is done."

The Terwilliger Funeral Home, in Kaleva, is in charge of arrangements.