Mary Tedrow Memorial Service
When my mother Freida, a good friend of Mary’s, passed away we were in a panic. For years Mom had made oyster soup for Christmas Eve supper, but my sister-in-law Nancy had no idea how to make it. In fact, Nancy would rather not touch or look at an oyster. But one quick call to Mary Tedrow put our family back on the path of tradition. Nancy is still making that same soup . . . she just won’t eat it.
Some names just go together. . . Johnson and Johnson, Proctor and Gamble, Sears and Roebuck. . . . Mary and Myron. Inseparable.
I think I was about ten years old before I actually heard Myron talk. He’d sit there tapping his fingers. . . those fingers that always fascinated me because although Myron was a neat and dapper fellow, his fingernails were always stained with printer’s ink. He’d sit there tapping his fingers while Mary would tell us the proper way to make Jello and mandarin orange salad. Mary would get excited when talking about food and she rated every restaurant we visited when our family would go on vacation to Wisconsin, Florida, or the Ozarks. Cleanliness was a priority, then the behavior of the waitress, but she really zeroed in on the quality of food. She was especially critical of restaurants that couldn’t make good gravy. Our Christmas dinners are still supplied with a ham that Mary would order and send to Jacksonville. She liked fine dining. She once made breakfast reservations a year in advance for the Tedrow’s and Bradbury’s at a fancy New Orleans café.
I was the ring bearer at Mary and Myron’s wedding. All I remember is that they had to tie the wedding ring to my little silk pillow. I wiggled a lot in those days. And her mother Lizzy . . . Elizabeth. . was my first grade teacher. Mrs. Walker once caught me cheating on a spelling test and let me off without telling Mom who was teaching right down the hall. I was so scared I never cheated again, all the way through college.
That same quality of kindness was happily inherited by her daughter, Mary. Always kindness, always a sense of propriety, always “class.” Impeccable in dress and in manners. And of course Mary had her other side, too. She once complained about the neighbor’s cat and how if she just had a gun she could take care of the problem. So. . .I went shopping at Wal-Mart and found a gas-powered air pistol to pop the kitty. . . I took it to Mary’s house and showed her how to the use gun. She complained that it wasn’t a rifle, but I explained to her that she needed a gun to scare the cat, not kill it. I thought that was illegal, even in gun-toting Pike County. When my brother Keith and his wife Nancy sorted through her things for the sale they found the pistol . . . unused. . . and a loaded rifle.
Her home was her castle and if you stopped to visit you’d likely find her at her kitchen table, looking out the back window at the birds and flowers. . .and cats.
Mary loved music and she had certain favorites. . . In fact, she once sent me a long list of songs that she wanted me to play and record for her. Some of these songs I’d never heard of and in her list of about 30 I found and recorded 29. She called me immediately and said, “You know, you missed one.” I found it ironic that her favorite song was called “Memory,” from the musical. . . . CATS.
Mom always said that Mary and Myron spent so much time around my nephews, Doug and David, that they actually helped raise them. I always warned the boys, “Now don’t let her turn you into Republicans.” Seriously, she was a life-long friend of our friend Paul Findley and in preparing for her sale we found many invitations to events featuring such people as President Nixon.
Mary devoured the Pike Press and Pike Reporter and would often call Dad for further details on stories. Dad was always happy to answer or make something up. He still does that.
She began as a stenographer at King Milling and ending up as Vice President, with more knowledge of buying and selling grain than many of today’s experts who rely upon a computer. A woman holding such a position would be common today but in 1971 this was surely a rarity and it speaks to Mary’s attention to detail in all she did. . .including making friends. Mary’s family was small so she made one. . . the one who’s sitting here remembering her today.
Many of you have far more memories of Mary Tedrow than I, and perhaps I’m the wrong person to be giving this tribute, but I know I speak for all who knew her when I say that Mary was a wonderful, loving woman. . .not be messed with, Cubs fan, determined in her beliefs, and a loving member of the family of Jesus Christ.
Rest in God’s peace, Mary.