Mary Frances Jackson

When Mary was 12, she and her widowed mother moved to Huntington Park, CA. In school as a teenager, she met her lifelong friend Jean Gesford. Mary graduated from University of Southern California with a BS (Cum Laude) in Education- Physical Education and two years later with a MS in Education. She remained a firm USC Trojans fan for life.

Mary and her mother moved back to Michigan where Mary taught high school in Midland. She began to focus on guidance counseling and was thrilled to attend the University of Michigan Ann Arbor to enroll in and instruct graduate courses. Eventually, she became a guidance counselor at Seaholm High School in Birmingham, MI.

She was a tireless advocate for “Her Kids”, a voice for teenagers in the changing times of the 60’s, 70’s, and early 80’s, challenging parents, other teachers, and even her students, to make positive and doable choices for their education and lives. Along the way, she was the guidance counselor to Jane and Webster Buell’s kids and became a close personal friend of the family. It wasn’t always easy, juggling a friendship with the parents and running interference with the teenage kids. But she made a difference in their lives, and their friend’s lives, in the lives of “Her Kids”, evidenced by stories her students told to the Buells over the years.

Retired in 1985, Mary moved up north and eventually landed in Marquette, MI. She made good friends (Jeanne Trost, Gail Ruffus) and good neighbors (Diane Lang, Maryanne and Tom Huebner). Mary was a “dog person” and usually had one in her lap. She loved Lake Superior and believed in the power of prayer. In her later years, in assisted living, she called her caregivers “My Angels” especially Connie Giese of Marquette, and Mary’s Angels at Brookridge in Marquette and Diamond Willow in Duluth.

She is preceded in death by her parents and brother Charles Rowe Jackson III and sister-in-law Betty Marie Jackson.

She is survived by her nephews Stephen C. (Debra) Jackson, Peter M. Jackson and David W. Jackson; grandnieces Michelle L. Kirk and Teague Ann Jackson; grandnephew Clayton C. Jackson, and five great-grandnieces and nephews. She leaves behind many grateful former students, the Buell “kids”, and especially “Her Kid” Robin (John) Buell Whaley of Knife River, MN and Elise (Donald) Whaley Rigney of Duluth, MN.

Donations in Mary’s honor can be made to an animal advocacy of choice.

An informal memorial service will be held in Marquette, MI sometime this summer. Inquiries relating to the service can be directed to Robin Buell Whaley P.O. Box 203 Knife River, MN 55609.