Mary Jane (Pressley) Winter

Our Mary Jane Pressley Winter gracefully left her family on August 18, 2023 after 98 years of living a good life. She was born a small town girl in December of 1924 in Ithaca, Michigan, the oldest of three siblings. Mary spent all her years residing in the towns of Ithaca, E. Lansing, Lansing, and DeWitt.

Following in the footsteps of her dad, she graduated from Michigan State College. It was there she met her future husband Ken, recently returned from overseas service in WWll, and marriage soon followed.

They made their home in Lansing where they filled their small Colonial Village house with four children, eventually moving with pride two blocks away to a brand new larger house. Retirement prompted another move to DeWitt, as well as ownership of a place up north in Harbor Springs where 17 summers of family memories were made.

Mary was a gentle soul. She loved her library books, sewing projects, crossword and jigsaw puzzles, board games, gardening, music, and documenting family history. She was an active volunteer for many years at the MSU Museum, and enjoyed working on the restoration of an antique carousel with the Brass Ring Society. An accomplished seamstress, knitter, stitchery artist, curtain maker and quilter, her many creations live on. Her specialties were apple pie, cinnamon bread, and making jam. She was an expert at canning as a young wife, but happy to eventually leave the depression years behind. Cooking was not on her favorite activity list.

Mary never let aging get in the way of life. She loved her blue car, and the independence it gave her well into her nineties. Driving to her monthly bridge club, guitar group gatherings, exercise class, school volunteer dates, garden club meetings and the library, she stayed active and vibrant. Even as a woman of a bygone era, she embraced changes the technical world brought on by emailing, texting, and printing her yearly Christmas letters.

Most of all she loved her grandchildren, and the holiday gatherings that brought them all together to fill the home with family love. She showed us all how to live a modest, caring, tolerant life while aging to 98 with courage, optimism, and grace.

She is survived by four children; Susan, Richard, Ann, Kathleen, and her dearly loved grand and great grandchildren

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