THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604020170
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: AROUND TOWN
SOURCE: LINDA MCNATT
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
I talked to Mary Wells in mid-December. It was around her birthday. She was at the Medical College of Virginia for a bone marrow transplant when she turned 60.
And despite the grueling treatments she was going through to prepare for the procedure, Mary was in good spirits, glad to hear from me, eager to tell me exactly what was being done to fight the cancer that was ravaging her body and how convinced she was that the procedure would help.
It didn't.
Mary Louise Williams Wells died last week after a valiant battle. Her funeral was held on Saturday at First Gravel Hill Baptist Church, in Rushmere, the community she had called home for many years.
Had it been anything else, Mary wouldn't have let it beat her. And it beat her not because she didn't try.
``She methodically went about doing what needed to be done, step by step,'' said Evelyn Chandler, the woman who organized the People for Mary Wells Movement that helped to raise about $25,000 to help pay for cancer treatment.
Chandler said that when she first approached Mary about doing something to help with the expenses, Mary wanted her to understand exactly what she was going through, what her chances were.
``She actually copied information and brought it to me,'' Chandler said. ``I couldn't believe the strong reserve she had.''
Since her death, everybody has talked about and newspaper articles have been written about that strong reserve in everything Mary did.
Mary worked as an extension agent in Isle of Wight for years. She specialized in working with the poor and the elderly. She served on the board of SEVAMP (Southeastern Virginia Area Model Project), a funding agency for projects to improve nutrition and provide transportation for the elderly. She was a founder of the Isle of Wight Commission on Aging. She organized correspondence courses at one of the local meat packing plants.
When the county celebrated its 350th anniversary about 10 years ago, somebody had the idea it was time to write an oral history of the county by talking with some of Isle of Wight's oldest residents. The project had a hard time getting off the ground until Mary took over. She personally conducted and wrote many of the interviews in the book that finally resulted from the project.
Mary, for a while, wrote for The Virginian-Pilot and before that, she wrote extension columns for another local paper. If anything was ``do-able,'' Mary could do it.
While working as an extension agent, she got her master's degree from Hampton University, received distinguished service awards from the National Association of Extension Home Economist, a number of other outstanding awards. In 1990, Mary became the first black woman to be elected president of the National Association of Extension Home Economists.
She proved again, in 1991, when she retired from the extension service and took up real estate, that if something was do-able, she could do it. In almost no time at all, she was a member of the ``Million Dollar Club.''
I got to know Mary well when she worked for the paper, and my first impression was one that I don't think anybody who knew her well would deny: Mary could be a little pushy. But her heart was always in the right place. She got things done.
And most of the time, you simply didn't mind being pushed a little by Mary because she was always smiling, always charming.
If she accomplished a lot of big things in her life, in her community, in her church, in her jobs - she accomplished just as many little things in the lives of those around her.
I will never forget when I first found out she was so sick. I hadn't talked with Mary in several months. I was interviewing a local woman who was about to enter her homemade pickles into the county fair competition.
The woman told me her story. She had been one of, if I remember right, 10 children, whose mother died at a young age. Her father had raised the family, and he taught the girls to do the necessary things like wash and clean. But there were no domestic frills, no baking, no fancy cooking.
When the woman married, she did only what she knew how to do for her own family, until she met Mary. Mary apparently convinced her she could do almost anything. She encouraged her to bake, can, try new recipes.
``I would never have tried making pickles if it hadn't been for Ms. Wells,'' the woman told me, laughing. ``Now, here I am entering a contest with them.''
Mary brought me red tulips once.
It wasn't because of anything special that I'd done. It was nothing out of the ordinary. I simply gave her support and encouragement once when she was struggling with a story she was working on for the paper.
I had forgotten the incident until she walked into the office late one afternoon with the tulips. She'd been to a luncheon in Richmond and won the potted plant as a door prize. The tulips were drooping somewhat after the long car trip.
But I will never forget her face when she explained to me why she wanted me to have them. She made me feel very special, and I know now that her ability to do that for others was the real secret to her success.
Mary, we're going to miss you.
And we know, somewhere in heaven, somebody is learning to make pickles, whether they want to or not.
Contributions to help pay Mary's medical expenses are still being accepted through the People for Mary Wells, 9 St. Catherine Dr., Carrollton, Va. 23314. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Mary Louise Wells died last week.
by CNB