My aunt, Mary Nellie Clark, was the daughter of Loren Day & Martha Elizabeth (Dickenson) Clark. She lived most of her life in Umatilla County, Oregon. In 1938 she married Vernon Roscoe Ricketts. They were the parents of Lura, Maryverna, Doril, and Dean.

My aunt and I had many fun times together. We had the opportunity to work together at Rogers Cannery in Milton-Freewater, Oregon when I was in my late teens and early twenties. The floor lady, who was kind of a nosey person, would ask me a question and then go check my answer against what my Aunt Mary said. Then she'd return to me, and tell me what Aunt Mary said and ask, "Is that right?" We had a good laugh about it several times.

We took a few trips together, too, just the two of us. One such trip was to Cashmere, WA to take some things to our kin. I was the driver and had been to Cashmere many times before, but I never paid attention to where I was supposed to turn, as my Dad had always told me before. Well, we were going down the highway and when we reached Richland, WA, I knew I had missed the turn that we usually took, because we never went by Richland before. I said, "Are we supposed to go by Richland?"

She replied "No. Are we there?" "Yes, we are," I said, "we must have missed our turn. Where are we supposed to turn?" She replied that she didn't know exactly, as Vernon was always driving. We went back and I decided that we must head out towards Spokane. After we got going down the highway, then she knew where we were and where the next turns were going to be to take the shortest route there. Oh, it was fun!

On another trip, we had a tarp over the things in the pickup bed. After about an hour of driving, the tarp was blowing every which way as we went down the highway. I stopped and climbed up on the side of the pickup and tried to get it all tied down again. Aunt Mary helped me by laughing all the time!!

The family will miss Aunt Mary, she was the last of her siblings to die. We will miss her laughter, wisdom, and encouragement.