Mary Wilma Savage

She was born on a farm in Squirrel, Idaho on her dad’s birthday, October 25, 1921, increasing the town’s population by about 10%. The eldest of three children born to William (“old onery Bill”) and Katie Garz, she was later joined by sister Evelyn and brother Dan. She loved to be outside and would rather help her dad with the farming than be in the house doing “women’s work”. (She hauled the grain to the grain elevator but her grandmother said it was not a job for a lady.) She attended a one-room school for her first eight grades, with one or two kids in each grade.

In September 1942 the chief operator of Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph in Ashton offered her a job as a telephone switchboard operator (“one ringy-dingy…”). Later, when Ashton was the first city in eastern Idaho to get the dial system, she was transferred to St. Anthony and then to Idaho Falls in 1957.

It was in Idaho Falls that she met our dad, Ronald Savage, on a blind date. They were married on November 26, 1965 and she returned with him to Pasadena, California. What a brave woman! She married a man with three children and moved away from everything familiar! (And the consensus in the family is that the smartest thing our dad ever did was to marry Mary. ) They moved to Placentia in 1973 when dad’s company moved, and began attending St. Stephen’s. Unfortunately dad died just four years later.

She was thrilled to be able to visit the Holy Land twice, along with Egypt and Germany. She liked to sew and read and walk and do Sudoku. She bowled in a league until she was 95 (though lamented having to go to a lighter ball after 90).

Mary was a life-long Lutheran, starting with attending Zion Lutheran via a sled and team of horses in the snowy Idaho winters. She loved and trusted the Lord in everything. She was an active member of St. Stephen’s/Searchlight until she moved to San Juan Capistrano in 2019.

Mary is survived by her brother Dan (Patsy) of Ashton, ID, niece Lisa of Pocatello, nephew Mike of Boise and their children. Also by step-daughter Mary Doty of Laguna Niguel and step-son John (Christine) of Quartzsite, AZ. Preceded in death by sister Evelyn, husband Ron (1977), step-son Lee David (2021).