Mary suffered loss throughout her life.
Her older sister Emily passed away unexpectedly when Mary was 18.
Two months later (10 Nov 1931), she married James Bertley Davis and had two children, James on 8 Sep 1932, and Vera on 12 Oct 1934. James was a truck driver. According to the divorce filing, James stopped providing financial support to the family, and presumably was no longer in the home, by 9/1/1935. Mary was the plaintiff in the divorce and papers were served to James in Price, Utah on 8/10/1936. The divorce was finalized on 6/11/1937. James was to pay child support in the sum of $20/month ($358 in 2020 dollars).
The same year that her husband left, her mother passed away of diabetes at the age of 58.
Mary re-married two years later at age 29 (1939) to Ernest Thomas Urie and had a son 11 months later. Alcohol was obviously a part of their lives while courting. In March of 1938, Ernest, Mary, and presumably her two children Deon age 6, and Vera age 4, were involved in a single-car accident. Ernest “had no explanation for careening off the road into a gully.” That statement in the small-town newspaper article begs suspicion that the readers in town needed no explanation.
Her father passed away from a tragic accident and she divorced Ernest in 1946. She was 35. Since her son Thomas was old enough to enter school, she went to work for Mountain Bell that same year. An employee there, and patron of the diner and where she worked as a server, encouraged her to apply. She worked as a telephone operator in the days before phones had keypads or even rotary dials. The caller would pick up the phone to hear the operator say, “number please.”
In 1949, her brother Vivian Ashdown was murdered by strychnine poisoning by his ex-wife. She had recently married a man in Salt Lake City when she returned to her family in Idaho and began administering the poison to Vivian, triggering an episode that was originally thought to be heart trouble. She then re-married him in spite of her being already married to the other man. Finally, she administered the lethal dose onto a road-side stand hamburger that she gave to Vivian. The whole story is recounted in a detectives magazine article. (2)
James Chester "Chet" Arthur Parry, Ernest’s 1st cousin, and Mary were seeing each other romantically in spite of the former being still married to Maurine Heaps since 1934. By 1950, this was obvious to Mary’s youngest son (age 10), although the romantic relationship could have started before her divorce from Ernest. (1)
In 1955, another brother, Ray, who was married to the sister of his brother’s murderer, was also poisoned to death by HIS wife in Cedar City, also by way of strychnine, but in a glass of lemonade.
[What about these 25 years?]
She retired from the phone company in 1972 as Chief Operator, overseeing 15 other operators (1). She subsequently moved to Washington City.
Chet was officially divorced from Maurine on March 2, 1973, according to a divorce decree dated December 2, 1972 that read that “it be final on the expiration of three months following from the date of entry hereof.” Although Chet did not respond within 90 days of the summons served by the sheriff while in St. George, Maurine claimed that Chet treated her in a “cruel and inhuman manner, for the past several years, that caused her great mental and physical distress.” Chet and Mary were married one week later on 3/9/1973.
Her son never knew her to attend church prior to her move to Washington (1). But at age 61 (1974), she received her reproving patriarchal blessing by Patriarch (and Dr.) Wilford J. Reichman, about her life up to that point and the changes that were expected from her for the remainder of her life. Ten months later, Chet passed away suddenly, leaving her alone to finish the development of the Washington Park Sub-Division (between the Washington City Community Center and Interstate 15). She named the streets, and donated the land for the church building located across the street from her home on then Urie Circle (now Urie East Drive). She sold homes and building lots, and ran a tax preparation business. She took out her own temple endowments ten months after Chet’s passing.
In 1975, her Cedar City sorority, Phi Sigma Alpha, named her Woman of the Year.
Her home was a favorite vacation destination of mine. Most Spring and Summer breaks were spent there. It impressed me that she kept the larger bedroom with private bathroom and more expensive furniture in her home for guests, while she used the smaller one for herself. I remember her hopping across benches in a mountain amphitheater when she was in her early 70s and my feeling proud of my grandma. She introduced me to my first pastrami sandwich during one summer visit.
Grandma was known in the family for her belief in natural supplements, both topical and ingest-able.
On April 15, 1985 she received an award for 20 years of service in Records Extraction (which means she must have participated in records extraction prior to her move to Washington). She was also an active member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.
At the time of her passing, Mary was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She passed away at the home of her daughter in Cedar City, Utah on January 15, 2005.
(1) video interview with Thomas Roy Urie in March of 2020.
(2) Rehearsal for Homicide, Master Detective, April 1953
