Mary Elizabeth Boley Garred Kirk

Mary Elizabeth Boley Garred Kirk

Her time on Earth is completed, she has gone to her next adventure with her maker. She lived a full life with many great adventures and shared and received more love than she ever thought possible. She died in Prosser, Washington on September 13, 2021, surrounded by family and on her own terms. She relished her independence. Her children were comforted that she was able to manage her health care decisions to the very end. Mary Beth was born in the home of her maternal grandparents, Henry and Seraphie Huard in Moxee, Washington on February 26, 1933, to James and Peggy (Elizabeth Mary) Boley. As an infant during the great depression, the family moved to a peanut and peach farm near Sacramento, California for a few years. Then they moved to the beautiful Wenas Valley to a cattle and sheep ranch, where life was idyllic with farm animals, a huge vegetable garden, hayfields, bookmobiles, grange potlucks and dances, crawdads, and periwinkles in the creek. They were surrounded by kind loving neighbors and family members. During World War II, she attended school in Selah and at St. Pauls in Yakima until her sophomore year. The family moved to a small farm in Mabton, Washington and she was surrounded by people who became her lifelong friends and companions. Mary Beth’s first income-producing job at age sixteen was working a twelve-hour night shift at the John I Hass Hop Ranch. After harvest, she and her school friends took the commuter train from Mabton to Yakima to shop for school clothes. Her second job was cutting asparagus for Bill Flower’s father. It was an all-student crew and the high school principal was the field boss. It was great fun and the students were given a ten-cent bonus per hour for working until the end of the season. She graduated from Mabton High School with the class of 1951. She lived and studied at St. Elizabeth School of Nursing, attended Yakima Valley College, and graduated as an R.N. in 1954. She worked for a time in pediatrics and was an office nurse for Dr. Richard Stiles of Yakima. In 1956 she married her high school sweetheart and best friend Lt. Gary E. Garred U.S. A.F. at St. Pauls Cathedral in Yakima. They lived in Maryland where he was stationed at Langley Air Force Base with a top FBI security rating. His squadron was attached to the pentagon and white house. Their duties were to transport personnel from the White House and Pentagon to Camp David and elsewhere. They would be used to evacuate them in case of a national disaster during the cold war with Russia. Living on the East Coast and DC was a new adventure for a country girl. During the Korean War, her husband was deployed to the Dew Line in the Baffin Bay Area of Canada. Their first child, Greg was born while he was stationed there. She returned from Maryland to Yakima and continued her work as an RN. When Gary returned they moved to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas where he was an instructor pilot and she enjoyed being a military wife, homemaker, and mother. Following Gary’s release from the Air Force, they lived in Pullman and attended WSU resuming their education. Daughter Sharon and son Dougie were born at that period in their busy lives. Her husband Gary was offered a job with aero copters in Seattle owned by Bill Boeing Jr. So they packed, moved to Seattle where Gary did contract flight work in the pacific northwest and Alaska while she cared for their babies. They were expecting their fourth baby and she was adapting to the exciting life in Seattle and Western Washington. Following her husband Gary’s death in 1960 and the birth of their fourth baby, Gary Michael, Mary Beth moved to Sunnyside, Washington to be near family and the children’s grandparents. In 1966, she married Dr. Richard A. Kirk MD in Othello, WA. They put their two families together with the wonderful addition of Dick’s children Cathy, Kim and Tom. Later they added two new babies Heather and Jim but stopped short of a baseball team. The Krazy K Ranch was now complete. She had a very active, challenging, enjoyable life as a wife and mother to their eight children. She enjoyed encouraging her children to pursue independent pursuits as long as the pursuits occurred outside the home. Her children remember many happy, crowded family vacations. She was involved in the children’s school activities, sports, and the summer rotary swim team program. She worked part-time in her husband’s office and for Dr. Al Maling as a nurse and receptionist/bookkeeper. She also worked for a time in Sunnyside. As a couple, they enjoyed skiing, trail riding the crest trail, the coastal beaches, and boating the American and Canadian San Juans with friends, living off the land and sea. They did not bring any of the children on these trips. Upon retirement in 1993 from her husband’s office, they discovered Elderhostel and watercolor classes, wandered around Western Canada and the US hunting, fishing, and were always ready to see what was over the hill in this amazing country. Mary Beth also enjoyed reading, history, gardening, walking, yoga, music, dancing, golf, and their family and friends. She painted hundreds of beautiful greeting cards for family and friends throughout the years. Her love of geology and rocks led her family to collect agates from Lincoln City and a variety of rocks from around the world. Mary Beth was a lifelong member of the Roman Catholic Church. She was raised to respect the diversity of all people and their beliefs. She taught CCD, was involved in the funeral luncheon ministry, senior acapella choir, and various church projects. Her CCD curriculum included teaching ballroom dancing to middle-school aged children which some of her children recall as an embarrassing and enjoyable educational experience. She was a member of and past president of Federated Jr. Women’s Club, Seattle Children’s Hospital Guild, Swingers Nine Golf, Sunnyside Community Hospital Guild, Over the Hill Gang, Nouvella, Organizational Committee of Lower Valley Hospice, and co-chaired the first Lower Valley Hospice auction. She was a grateful member of A.A. and the twelve-step movement. Mary Beth is preceded in death by husbands Gary E. Garred, Richard A. Kirk; son Douglas Francis Garred; her parents James and Peggy Boley; sister Joann Gromesch; brothers Bill and Bert Boley; sister-in-law Joan Wells; parents in-law Max and Mary Garred and Alex and Jo Kirk, and some special friends Jack and Jean Sharpe, Doug and Patti Leifeste and Roselle and Chevy Chase.

She leaves behind her beloved children: Cathy Kirk McDanel (Michael) of Buckeye, AZ, Greg Garred Kirk (Joan) of Yakima, Kim Kirk Bailey (Dale) of El Dorado, CA, Sharon Garred Kirk Dolan (Tom) of Sunnyside, Tom Kirk of Kenmore, WA, Gary Garred Kirk (Norma Fuentes) of Seattle, Heather Kirk Marro (Mark) of Sunnyside and Jim Kirk (Paula) of Sunnyside. She also leaves her much loved grandchildren Bethany (Isaac), Garred, Lucas, Nathan, Jason (Andrea), Derek (Betsy), Tyler (Jadie), Molly, Hannah (Joel), Josie, Madison, and Abigail, as well as three precious great-grandchildren Addison, Remy, and Sloane. Surviving beloved family members also include: sister Claire Sue (Maury) Bregel and her family; sisters in-law Beverly Boley and her family, Barbara Boley and her family, Lauretta Garred and her family; Michelle Garred, Mary Lou, Jim, Tom, and Bill Hart, Jodie and John Langhammer, Dave and Kristi Wells, and Gary and Stephanie Wells and some special friends that were always there for her.

Recitation of the Holy Rosary Friday, October 29, 2021 at 6:00 pm at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Sunnyside, WA. Funeral Mass will be held Saturday, October 30, 2021 at 11:00 am at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Sunnyside, WA. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Heartlinks (Lower Valley Hospice) 3920 Outlook Rd. Sunnyside WA 98944 or St. Joseph’s Food Bank. Those wishing to sign Mary Beth’s online memorial book may do so at www.funeralhomesmith.com   Smith Funeral Home in care of arrangements.

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