Mary Jantzen was born on October 13, 1924, near Wolfe City, Texas. She was the ninth child born to John William and Nora Lee Sibley Gilliam and was the last of her family. The family moved to Mangum, Oklahoma, in 1927. Mary spent all of her school years in Mangum, graduating from high school in 1942.

Mary attended college for a brief time and began her teaching career during World War II at Fairview and Centralvue in Greer County, OK. At that time it was common for teachers to be hired under provisional certificates. When the war ended she returned to college at Southwestern in Weatherford to complete her degree. It was there that she met Orland “Whip” Jantzen and they married on September 13, 1946. Whip had just returned to college from almost five years of military service. Mary and Whip spent four summers in Gunnison, Colorado, working toward completing their Masters Degrees, a goal that was met in the summer of 1961. They taught at Brinkman, Southside, and Elk City, OK, and at Northside, (Vernon) and Mineral Wells, TX. Mary and Whip retired in Mineral Wells after many years of teaching. Mary was an active member of the First Methodist Church in Mineral Wells and enjoyed volunteering there after Whip died. She was a volunteer at the Palo Pinto hospital and loved the work she did there. She was also active in the Palo Pinto County Retired Teachers group. She was once part of a group that visited the Texas state capitol to voice displeasure with a new law that affected retired teachers and the legislators spent the entire time the teachers were there passing resolutions congratulating basketball teams. If you knew Mary you can imagine how she reacted. Another favorite activity was being a member of the Red Hat Society where she had so much fun visiting and lunching with her friends! Mary and Whip had two children, Carole and Ronald.

Mary is preceded in death by her husband, Whip; her parents, John and Nora; sisters, Vesta May Moore, Bernadean Horn, Virgil Estes, and Ruth Thomason; brothers, Marvin, Delbert, Arlo, and Roy.

Survivors include daughter, Carole Woodard (Larry); son, Ron Jantzen (Lynn) and grandchildren Kristin Meyers, Leslie Gonce (Chris), Aaron Woodard, and Kara (C. J.) Clem. She also is survived by six great grandchildren, Lauren Gonce, Ashley Gonce, Tyler Meyers, Megan Meyers, Callie Clem and Jaxon Clem.

A graveside service will be held at a later date.