Mary K. Williams

Born: October 06, 1921

Died: March 30, 2015

Mary Catherine Barnett Williams, known as Mary K., died at her home Monday, March 30, 2015 at the age of 93.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held Monday, April 6, 2015 at 2:30 p.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Gettysburg with Father Jerry Kopel officiating. Burial of the cremains will be held at a later date. A reception will follow in the church fellowship hall with ice cream and oreos served in her honor.

Born Oct. 6, 1921 to George Richard and Ruth Theresa (Bauch) Barnett in Sioux Falls, SD, Mary K. was the third of 10 children born to the Barnett family. She was raised in Sioux Falls where she graduated with honors from Cathedral High School in 1939. She was Prefect of the Sodality her senior year and was involved in numerous activities, including music, theatre, and cheerleading. She attended the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN on an academic scholarship until her marriage to Terrence M. Williams, her neighbor from Sioux Falls, on Feb. 5, 1942.

Her husband left to serve as a P38 fighter pilot in World War II, and Mary K. was at home with their baby, Terry Jr. At the war’s end in 1945 they moved to Gettysburg and later made their home on the family farm south of town. There they raised five boys and, in later years, two daughters.

Mary K. was active in her community as a den mother for the Boy Scouts, a Girl Scout leader, and was the Girl Scout Neighborhood Chairman. She was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church where she directed the choir for many years. Throughout the years she was a member of the Women’s Literary Society, Hospital Auxiliary, American Legion Auxiliary, VFW Auxiliary, and Mother’s Club. She played the part of Mrs. Santa at community events, was Mardi Gras Queen in 1969, and was the Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year. She earned her Golden Eaglet in Girl Scouts, and was honored with numerous community accolades.

She loved singing, made amazing whole-wheat bread, and thought costumes were a great way to liven a party.

Survivors include her sons Terrence M. (Judy) of Rapid City, Michael (Ann) of Lemmon, Bruce (Peggy) of Gettysburg, Richard “Bill” (Emily) of Aberdeen, Jay (Carol) of Yankton, and daughters Kara of Taos, NM, and Molly (Harry McRoberts) of Gettysburg; 27 grandchildren; a gaggle of great-grandchildren; brothers Dr. Lou (Maggie) Barnett and Don (Marilyn) Barnett of Sioux Falls; sisters-in-law Kay Barnett of Terre Haute, IN, and Liz Williams Bogue of Rapid City, SD.

She was preceded in death by her husband in 1998, her brother Richard in infancy, her sister Sheila at age two, her brothers Bob and Jack, sisters Barb, Patricia, and Jane, and grandson Dan.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Gettysburg Hospital Auxiliary, 606 E Garfield, Gettysburg, SD 57442 or Gettysburg Community Foundation, PO Box 33, Gettysburg, SD 57442.

Luce Funeral Home of Gettysburg has been entrusted with Mary K.'s arrangements.

Saturday was a big day for me. Eric and I drove down to Sakatah State Park to go running on the trail. We did 8 miles. Yes I said 8 miles! It is a major thing for me. I have a 15K coming up in 3 weeks and to be honest I’ve been very scared of it. 9.3 miles is a long way to go. I’ve done a couple 7 mile runs before but they were all very hard. I thought to myself after the last 7 mile run, “How the heck am I going to do 2.34 more miles?” Now I can say I’ve done 8 miles and only have to worry about 1.34 miles. I can walk that…

Left in the woods…

The run was hard. I was bitter and ornery for the first 2 miles. Eric even made a comment about it. Eric is a saint for putting up with me. I eventually got my mind in the right spot. It helps when you think that if I keep treating him this way, he will sprint to the car and leave me there I the middle of the woods with no cell phone and no money. Not that he would actually do that but the threat is real, he had the car keys and can run faster than me!

Mile 3 was a breeze!

I had planned to turn around at the 2.5 mile mark but I didn’t look at my watch (Eric told me to stop looking at it) and before too long we were at 3 miles. I have to say mile 3 went by pretty fast. After we turned around, I drank some water and munched on a few tootsie rolls. I’m trying to figure out what will work to fuel me on the long distance runs. I hate the Gu stuff they try pushing so I’m looking for an alternative that doesn’t make me want to puke. Animal crackers worked but they make my mouth dry so my water was gone before the end of the run. Salted nut rolls work too but again I drink a lot of water with them. I’m not sure about tootsie rolls. They taste good and are easy to carry but they sticky on the teeth and require water, but not nearly as much as the other two options. So my quest for long run fuel continues.

Eric said what?

At mile 4, Eric actually said let’s walk for a bit. I know shocking…Eric said “walk.” This coming from somebody who used to say that walking was bad (and that is why he didn’t finish the TC Marathon many moons ago because Felicia made him walk.)  We walked a short bit, had another tootsie roll and then continued running. We meet some girls who were also running 8 miles. They were doing the Galoway, run-walk method.

I didn’t quit!

Around mile 6 we walked again for a bit and drank water and ate tootsie rolls. Even though my back was killing me, and we were close to the car, I pressed on. I didn’t quit like I could have. I gave Eric the water belt to take the weight off my back. Part of my problem with longer runs is I need water and I have to carry it with me. I felt much better when I got the weigh off my back. We ran to mile 7 (it was faster than mile 6!). My toes were tingly, numb and burning all at the same time during the entire mile 7. I’m not sure but I think my nerves in my toes were mad at me. I loosened the laces on my shoes and my toes stopped hurting. We turned around and headed down the home stretch. I walked a lot of the last mile but I still ran more than walked so that is good. Eric ran all of the last mile…he is so awesome. But I did it. I ran 8 miles!

To put that into prospective (for me), that is like running from my parent’s house in Independence to Arcadia. Or Mankato to DJ’s house in Rapidan or Rapid City to Blackhawk. For me that is amazing. For others that is nothing. But I don’t care about the others! I only care about me. Yes, I’m selfish!

In other news…

I’ve been a little lax on the blog lately. I haven’t really had much to say. I know shocking!

Last week was pretty boring. I think the most exciting thing was not having band on Thursday. It was cancelled last minute so Eric and I pigged out at Boston Market. And did I run on my night off?? Nope!

Let see, I went swimming on Wednesday. It had been a while. But of course when I get excited to swim again, the pool is closed down this week for Spring/Easter break. Darn it! Hopefully I will still be excited next week when it is open again. The only bad thing is it moves to the other pool in town. I like the East Jr. High pool better. Even though it is older and smaller, I just like it better. I think part of the problem with the West Jr. High pool is they always have swim team practice at the same time and I have to deal with that.

Friday after work we went to the KC fish fry with Greg and Celeste. It was delicious of course but a bit spendy, $12 each!?! It was cheaper to pig out at Boston Market!

Maps and Splits

This is my first shot at this distance and my time is slow but I’ll get faster!

 

Well I added a new race distance for me. I have done a 7K, 10K and 11K but never an 8K. Eric said we need to find a 9K now. Anyways, this past weekend we completed the Irish Run 8K (basically 5 miles). This was the first year of the run so there wasn’t much swag. We got a nice long sleeve shirt and plain old bib. Of course there was also free beer but no medal. I like my hardware!

The Start

It was a small race, only 196 8K runners and 145 5K runners so I didn’t have the usually crowd to push me like the bigger races which could be part of the reason my splits were terrible. We started running up an overpass. Not cool! But immediately we got to run downhill so that was good. My pace was really fast that first mile at 10:43. I haven’t run that fast in a while. But the rest of the race was crap. Eric was irritated with me because I slowed down “too much.” He killed me in that first mile. I wasn’t happy with him for most of this run. At one point I told he we shouldn’t run together anymore. Yes I want to get faster Eric, but I don’t want try it in a race at a distance I haven’t done before and I don’t want to do it on the first mile of a longer race. I want to finish the race standing up. We can work on speed later on training runs when it doesn’t matter if you kill me the first couple miles.  But I had a race to finish. ARGH!

The Middle

It was an out and back course (I hate!) so the view wasn’t that exciting.  The race was also down a straight street which is even more boring as there is no were curves. You can see in a distance where the turnaround is and you just run towards that. I didn’t have any issues along the way (like wanting to turn around at the 5K turn). I kept going with a smile.  We actually got to run around a block so that was exciting. I like that much better than a turnaround (even if the block was on cobblestone, ick!) You don’t lose too much momentum like you do on a regular turnaround. I told Eric at the 2.5 mile mark that I wanted to finish in 57 minutes.

The End

Like I said this was a small race and it was very lonely after the 5K turnaround point. Eric kept wanting to catch people ahead of us that I knew I couldn’t do but because they were really far ahead of us. I know I shouldn’t say words like can’t or couldn’t but I’m a realist, I know what I can and can’t do and catching somebody that is running faster than me and is over a half a mile in front of me is not going to happen. I’m not a sprinter! Surprisingly one of the people started walking. Finally I could pass somebody. But he played the game of “can’t let the fat girl pass me” and would take off running faster as soon as I caught up to him. It pissed me off. But I kept going and eventually I passed him and beat him but 5 seconds (take that skinny, 26 year old Alex from Minneapolis!) What is pathetic (for him) is my last mile was the slowest and that is the mile I passed him! I also finished at exactly 57 minutes. I even beat Eric by 1 second. Take that Eric! Ha!

I think Eric’s competitiveness has finally rubbed off on me.  Watch out Eric, don’t piss me off because I might just run faster than you…I know that isn’t going to really happen but one can dream!

Photos, Splits and a Map

  

   

 

Hair and Makeup

Two words I don’t discuss much but that was what was in store for us girls on Saturday morning. Our day started pretty early. All the bridesmaids, Danielle and Nancy had our hair done at the salon. Some of us also had make up done…none of us really wear makeup. I would normally do my own as I actually know how to do it but alas I forgot my make up at home. I love what they did with my hair. I really didn’t have any ideas what I wanted and when the stylist said braid, I was a little scared. But it turned out great. My only complaint is it felt like it was falling out all day. I think I had the least amount of bobby pins at 25.

After hair and makeup we drove down to the church. We were way ahead of schedule so we just hung out in the basement, eating left over food from the rehearsal dinner…yum bacon! I ate a ton of food, I’m surprised my dress fit! Danielle put her own makeup on. Dawn, Bradley’s mom, bought her the Bare Minerals starter kit and taught her how to do it. She even labeled all the bags as step 1, step 2, etc.

Pre-wedding Pictures

Around noon the photographers showed up and started snapping pictures of us getting ready for the day. You know the type of pictures. Before long it was time to put on the dresses. I knew this dress was going to be on for 12 hours so I waited to the last possible moment to put it on. It fit great. We all liked beautiful. It was time for the real pictures. Danielle was first (because Bradley didn’t want to see her before the wedding). Our session was almost an hour and then it was Bradley’s turn. I took a lot of pictures during that two hours. There were some cute ones and some that were lame. After his session, I headed back downstairs to wait until it was time to walk up the aisle.

The Ceremony

The ceremony was very nice and short. Dylan and I were the first ones to walk in. I did my best to smile! We had to stand up front for the whole ceremony. The pastor was good. He got a few math jokes in too. The exchanged the vows, the rings, light the unity candle and voila they were married. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Dobie.

After Wedding Photos

We finished up all the wedding photos after the ceremony. It didn’t take nearly as long as the pre wedding photos. We headed to Mankato for the reception.

The Reception and Dance

We came into the ballroom in a grand style. Dylan took my bouquet and I took his jacket and he sashayed his way down the aisle. It is the best we could think of. Nick wheeled Ashley in on a dolly. And Bradley and Danielle danced in and he picked her up. It was cool. We ate and then we danced. Of course since it was pi day, we had pi for desert.

We danced the usual polkas, hooky poky, chicken dance. It was a lot of dancing. We partied until 11-11:30pm, cleaned up and headed back to the hotel. I think we got in a little after midnight. It was a long, exhausting but exciting day.

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES