Birth: 1945 Death: 2024 MARY ANN LATIMER Mary Ann passed away peacefully in her home of 52 years on June 8, 2024 surrounded by her family. She was 79 years old. Mary Ann was born at the Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles on April 28, 1945.
She was the daughter of John and Helen Faherty. She is survived by her husband Dennis Latimer. They were married for 56 years.
She’s also survived by her children: Denver Latimer, Dylan Latimer and Elizabeth Latimer and her granddaughter, Aurelia Belle Latimer-Petersen. Mary Ann attended Ramona High School in Los Angeles. After graduation, she attended Santa Clara University where she met Dennie.
She obtained a degree in English. They both graduated from Santa Clara in 1967. The next year, she moved to Sacramento to be with Dennie who was in law school.
They got married and on January 15, 1969, Denver was born. Dylan was born on March 21, 1970. Shortly after, the family moved to Chico where Dennie worked as a lawyer.
The children went to Citrus Grammar School. At that time, Mary Ann was a busy wife and mother and was active in the Early Childhood Education Program. Then on February 15 1977, their third child, Elizabeth, was born.
Now Mary Ann had a new “sister” and an additional loving confidant. Mary Ann’s work in ECE had triggered a deeper desire to help people as a teacher. She began as a lecturer in English at Butte College.
Then she was hired by Chico State University to teach writing. She excelled at improving student test scores and improving student success in other courses. She worked to prepare her Master’s thesis on the subject of how to improve students’ success in writing.
She received her Master’s degree and worked at Chico State University until July 2009 when she retired. When she retired, the university acknowledged her skill and performance and granted her Professor Emeritus status. She had become lifelong friends with the people she worked with and also with many of her students that she taught and advised and knew how much she really cared.
Her style in many ways was consistent with the teaching of St. Francis: “..
. Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive” Mary Ann and her family lived two blocks from the campus where she worked.
When she walked over the Chico Creek bridge to teach she usually smiled and knew she had opened a world different than just a mother or a wife. When she walked back over the bridge to go home, she also usually smiled. Her children went to Chico High.
One time, while their children were in school, Mary Ann and Dennie went on a trip across Nevada, leaving them in the house to take care of themselves. When they returned they saw the entire western facing wall of their dilapidated garage had been torn down and replaced by a theater stage. That was the beginning of Mary Ann’s involuntary participation in Chico theater.
From there the theater transformed into the Butcher Shop which later transformed into The Blue Room above Colliers Hardware. She became a real founder of Chico Theater. Sometime later, Mary Ann, her husband, and her friends initiated the celebration of Bloomsday, the presentation of Ulysses, the James Joyce novel.
The heroine of Ulysses is the character Molly Bloom. She acted and recited a memorable version of the soliloquy of Molly Bloom on stage. “.
.. I love flowers I’d love to have the whole place swimming in roses God of heaven there’s nothing like nature the wild mountains then the sea as for them saying there’s no God I wouldn’t give a snap of my two fingers and o that awful deep down torrent o and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire” Mary Ann’s experience and participation in theater brought her to Dublin, traveling in Ireland, England and Italy, and traveling to Spain, and Paris and the French canals.
She saw a lot of beautiful art, including the work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. And she saw Bloomsday being performed in Spanish in Seville where Molly said: “..
. O aquel abismal torrente O y el mar el mar carmes¡ a veces como fuego” As a teacher, she opened minds to see that the exact same words in a different language would not necessarily mean the same thing. Because of the complexity and beauty and richness of language.
When Mary Ann was not teaching, working, and traveling, she was busy learning the beauty of her natural world in Northern California. She was aware that Mt. Lassen was the southernmost jewel in a necklace of west coast volcanoes.
She was aware of the beautiful canyons and the streams that found their way to the Sacramento River. She became a sweet but lethal fisher of trout. Her secret there? Tread lightly, watch out for rattlesnakes, and get in the water.
She loved to fish in Mill Creek, especially Savercool Place, a blackberry covered meadow one mile upstream from Black Rock. She caught large trout there. She also caught Chinook salmon where Mill Creek joins the Sacramento River.
From there, once again, she was a traveler. She spent summers in Montana at the “Moose in The Kitchen Window Ranch” owned by Mike and Trish Kelly. In Montana she fished the Big Hole River, the Jefferson River, and The Beaverhead River.
And one time, stopping in Oregon on her way home, she caught sea-run steelhead in the Umpqua River. Once on a trip to Ireland, she stayed in the famous Shelbourne Hotel, walked the St. Stephens Green, attended the Irish sweepstakes in The Curragh and caught sea-run brown trout in the Ballynahinch River in Connemara.
She drew a comment from an 80 year old Irish Gilly (guide) who described her fly fishing skill by saying “Your wife man, she can ‘shore throw a fly.” She was a wonderful friend to many people: playmates from her childhood, alumni from Santa Clara, many students that she taught, many teachers that she taught with, and her family and friends, and almost all acquaintances. Probably the most telling thing about Mary Ann was how she treated her large family.
All of her siblings survived her: Eileen Halliburton (sweetheart Rick). Kathy Recupero (Dave) Tom Faherty (*The beloved Terry), Joanie Takasugi (Lloyd), and Sheila Hugo (Chris). Nothing was more important to Mary Ann than family.
She knew the most effective way to sustain a close family was to include and celebrate all the nieces and nephews. She talked to them all, she listened to them all, she gave humorous advice to them all, she was known as Aunty Mame. The last few months of her life, even the last two days of her life, were a lesson.
She loved her home and she invited people to come see her right to the end. She loved visiting friends’ homes, taking walks in the neighborhood, going out to dinner, and going to local events. Two days before she died peacefully, she went to The Women’s Club for a local theater presentation to watch her son perform.
She was laughing throughout the performance. In the end she was released as a Queen of Angels. She flies away but will never leave us.
A mass will be held on Friday, August 2, 2024, at 10 am at St. John The Baptist Catholic Church followed by a celebration of life at the Butte Creek Country Club. Honor with Flowers In memory of Mary Ann Plant a Living Memorial In memory of Mary Ann.
