Obituaries

Mary Laura Myton (Stanley) of Dundee, Oregon, went home to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Monday, April 1, 2024, Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. Mary was a woman of great faith who lived a life of creativity and quiet adventure. She cherished her 62 years of marriage to her late husband, David V., and she enjoyed sharing many stories and treasured memories with her children, friends, and all who knew her.

Mary was born June 2, 1936, in Damascus, Ohio, to the late Earl and Gladys (White) Stanley, the second of four children. She graduated from West Branch High School and earned a Bachelor of Religious Education degree from Malone College. While attending Malone, she married her high school and college sweetheart, David Victor Myton, and they were inseparable until his passing in 2018.

Mary and David’s life together was guided by the Lord and wherever they were she brought beauty to their lives. Mary learned to play piano in college and could play hours of hymns from memory, a feat she attributed to years of accompanying services at the Friends church congregation in Springfield, Ohio where David was the minister. One of her favorite memories from that time was hosting Corrie Ten Boom in their home during her speaking tour of US churches.

Mary and David’s three children were born in Ohio and the family moved to Oregon in 1966 when David became a professor of education at George Fox University. David and Mary loved life in Oregon and made up for lost time as transplants by absorbing everything they could about the state’s scenery and history. At George Fox, Mary worked as an administrative assistant and helped prepare many manuscripts for publication. As an avid reader she found great joy in helping Dr. Arthur O. Roberts and Richard J. Foster bring their books to publication. Over the years she worked with Barklay Press authors and manuscripts and enjoyed many years as personal secretary to Father Paschal Phillips at the Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In addition to her work there, she enjoyed the solitude of the evening vespers services and amusing stories about the challenges of leading independent-minded monks.
Their friends and experiences from George Fox and Northwest Yearly Meeting would shape the rest of their lives. Mary and David both loved the mountains, rivers and scenery of Oregon and eagerly explored the state on camping trips with their children, Sunday drives to the Coast in their 1967 Pontiac Firebird, and RV trips with their friends. Mary delighted in sunny mornings clear enough to see the Coast Range of the Cascades from her living room window in Dundee and enjoyed sunsets where she could watch the fog roll up from the valleys below.

In her free time Mary threw herself into artistic pursuits, learning tole and oil painting. Mary also learned to quilt and quickly became a true artist in fabric. She and her band of quilting friends met weekly at each other’s houses to learn hand quilting, to study the latest quilt books, and to scout for quilt shop hops, and upcoming classes with quilt book authors. The Sisters Quilt Show became the must-see summer event for Mary and David. David didn’t mind at all since he loved the Central Oregon desert, and the quilt show was the perfect chance to dry camp in the RV for a week while Mary took a class or stroll down the streets together admiring quilts draped over the hitching rails. One of Mary’s quilts took first place at a local quilt show and she dreamed of one day seeing her own quilt on a hitching rail in Sisters.
Mary enjoyed antiques and classic British fiction (especially C.S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers) and treasured the vintage, antique and porcelain dolls, and Depression glass collection she built up from thrift store and garage sale finds. But quilting and painting really spoke to her senses and she would often exclaim once a quilt’s fabric and blocks were perfectly sewn and arranged, “There! The colors feel good!” She looked at quilts the way artists look at paintings and read the fabric and stitches like brushstrokes.

Mary and David found the most joy in their family and relished their changing roles as their children had families of their own. When they became grandparents, “Grammy” and “Grampy” became their preferred titles, and they would drop everything for a chance to see new photos or talk to their grandchildren and great-granddaughter.

Mary and David moved to Michigan in 2010 where they lived with their son David and his wife. They enjoyed family holiday celebrations and outings to waterfalls, parks and lighthouses, Lake Superior, Sugar Island, and of course visiting as many quilt shops as possible.

Mary is survived by her children, David M. (Mary E.) Myton, M. Beth Myton, Becky (Lawrence) Caruso; her grandsons, Benjamin (Amanda) Myton and Nathanael (Wicy) Myton; her great-granddaughter, Betsy Myton; her brother, Allen (Dorothy) Stanley; her sisters-in-law, Lana Stanley and Catherine Myton. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, David, her parents, her older sister, Dawn Price, and her youngest brother, James Stanley. There is expected to be a graveside memorial for the family at Noble Pioneer Cemetery in Newberg, Oregon in the fall.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 1 Thess 4:14