Mary C. Jackson, 90, Colorado

November 29, 1919 - October 30, 2010

    Mary Catherine Jackson, 90, a native of Glenwood, died on Oct. 30, 2010, in Colorado Springs, Colo. She was preceded in death by her husband, Donald Dean Jackson, also a Glenwood native, by her sisters Margaret Emily Mayberry and Virginia Rose (Mayberry) Scott and by her brother J.H. Mayberry.  She is survived by her sister Emma Elaine (Mayberry) Gilson of Glenwood, her brother Forrest McClelland Mayberry and his wife Jean, also of Glenwood, her sister Beth Ellen (Mayberry) Needham and her husband James, of Colorado Springs, and by her sons, Robert Woods Jackson of Charlottesville, Va., and Mark Richard Jackson of Colorado Springs.
    Mary Catherine Jackson was born on Nov. 29, 1919, the daughter of Ralph and Edith Mayberry, of Oak Township, Mills County. She attended West Liberty School No. 3, and was a member of the Glenwood High School Class of 1936.
    She taught at various Mills County schools from 1937 to 1942, and married Donald Dean Jackson on Oct. 6, 1943, in Los Angeles, Calif. She attended Iowa State University from 1944 to 1945, and the University of Iowa from 1945 to 1948, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree with high distinction in history, and where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  
    In 1948, she and Donald moved to Champaign, Ill., where they resided for the next 20 years. While there, she engaged in additional graduate school studies at the University of Illinois in the area of special education, a subject she taught in the Champaign Public Schools. She was also active in a variety of university and civic organizations, most notably the American Association of University Women.  In 1968, Donald was named Professor of History and Editor of the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia, and they took up residence in Charlottesville. While in Virginia, she continued her interest in special education, and was a private tutor of children with reading disabilities.
    Upon Donald’s retirement in 1975, they moved to their beloved mountain home overlooking South Cheyenne Canyon, in the foothills above Colorado Springs, where they lived for the next decade. After her husband’s death in 1987, she remained in Colorado Springs, where she kept busy with many activities over the course of the next 20 years. She was a founder, board member and volunteer with Care Castle, an internationally-recognized intergenerational day care center. She was also active as a volunteer with the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, of which her nephew, Matthew Mayberry, also a Glenwood native, is the director. Her other interests included international travel, her weekly quilting group, her monthly book club, and proudly keeping up with the accomplishments of her sons and those of her nieces and nephews and their many children.
    A family graveside service is planned for Friday, Dec. 17, 2010, at the Glenwood Cemetery, to be followed by a reception to which all friends and family are invited, at the Glenwood Senior Center, from  2 to 4 p.m. Memorial contributions can be made in her name to the Glenwood Public Library, 109 N. Vine Street, Glenwood, Iowa 51534.