She recalled how excited Mary Jane was to ski at Purgatory Resort the day before it opened in 1965. “She put a big priority on having fun with her children,” Antonia Clark said. Mary Jane’s daughter, Antonia Clark, remembered learning to ski with her at Chapman Hill before Purgatory opened. He recounted stories of skiing with his grandmother, who was an avid skier. He described her as one of those people you can be around without having to feel like you have to change a thing about yourself. Nick Clark said being around Mary Jane felt like being home. “A lot of people don’t think about it this way, but grandparents are a key part of your upbringing,” Ed Clark said. When he talked to her about marrying his current wife, she advised him to live with his significant other before marrying. We all had a great time and I’m going to miss her.”īoth grandsons Nick and Ed Clark shared what it was like to grow up having Mary Jane as a grandmother.Įd said Mary Jane taught him the importance of having grandparents as well as offering him relationship advice. “I looked at the water on one side of the dam and the river on the other side,” he said.
He said he drove down a county road that went down along the San Juan River and as he came upon one of the river’s dams, he received the news that Mary Jane had died. He was attempting to find the trading post that Mary Jane had worked at as a child. When Bennett had discovered that Mary Jane’s health was declining he made the trek to Blanco to see where she grew up.
He also recounted the moment when he found out she had died. Mary Jane’s nephew, Shannon Bennett, shared stories of visiting the family’s cabin at Electra Lake and learning to love the outdoors. She was in training for the Army Nurse Corp when World War II ended and she moved to Durango to finish her training at Mercy Medical Center, where she worked as a registered nurse. Mary’s College in Omaha, Nebraska, for a year before she was old enough to attend nursing school at a hospital in Denver. She graduated valedictorian at the age of 16 and attended St. “She judged people by who they were.”Ĭlark attended junior high and high school at the St. “That was a really important part in her life because she never judged anybody by their color,” Jackson Clark said. It was that upbringing that inspired her interests in Native American art. Mary Jane Clark was born July 1, 1925, in Blanco, New Mexico, where her parents operated the trading post and general store.īlanco was a small town of about 23 people when Mary Jane was growing up, and she lived among a Native American and Hispanic population, Jackson Clark said. “I'm sure Mary Jane is floating around here somewhere because there's two things she wouldn’t miss: one is a bridge game and the other is classical music,” said her son Jackson Clark to open the service. Hundreds of community members flooded into the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College to pay their respects to the longtime Durango business owner.Ĭlassical violinists Lauren Avery and Brandon Christensen performed as attendees entered the venue. Family members and friends reminisced on the different ways Mary Jane touched their lives and created a positive impact. The longtime matriarch of Durango’s Toh-Atin Gallery died April 23 after suffering a stroke at 97. More laughs were had than tears shed during a memorial service Monday for Mary Jane Clark. Owner and matriarch of Durango’s Toh-Atin Gallery dies, age 97
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