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Ferney School for three years. She graduated from Groton High School with honors in May 1940. She attended Northern State Teachers College for a one-year rural teaching course. She helped pay her way by waiting tables at the Lincoln Dining Hall, where she met Robert Thompson. After teaching at Hanson 25-1 two years, she and Robert were married May 29, 1943, at the Groton Presbyterian Church.
• After their wedding they lived at Pierpont SD where Robert was principal for two years. They then moved to Amherst where he was superintendent for three years before he became a US history and government teacher at Northern in Aberdeen, where he taught for 39 years.
• Mary was a "Stay at Home Mom," but she did volunteer work at School of Hope several years. She also was a volunteer at Avera St. Lukes for 36 years, and she was a volunteer leader at a women's exercise class at the Parks and Recreation Building for 39 years. She was an active member of Plymouth Congregational Church since December 1950, serving as officers and committee members until her health kept her from participating. In 2002she was named "First Lady of Aberdeen."
• Survivors include sisters Elaine Lorenz of Downing WS and Janice Nesheim of Hazelwood MO, children Bill (Anne) of Sioux Falls, Mary Jo of Alexandria MN, and Paul of St. Paul MN, grandchildren Geoff of Englewood CO, Sarah of Washington DC, and Sonja of St. Paul, and numerous nieces and nephews.
• She was preceded in death by her parents, Ted and Josie Simonson; her two brothers, Jack and Don Simonson; her three sisters, Harriet Lee, Jean Amonson, and Dorothy Fiedler; and one sister, Lois, in infancy. She also was preceded in death by her husband, Robert, who died of lung cancer June 2, 2011.
• Memorial gifts may be given to Meals on Wheels or Plymouth Congregational Church, which had a special place in her heart, having served on the Building Committee for seven years!
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