Mary M. Condon

Mary Marie (Johnson) Condon passed into the arms of the Lord, Wednesday evening, August 27, 2014, at her home in West Manchester, at the age of 83. Mary was born December 5, 1930, in Bent Mountain, Floyd County, Virginia, during the Great Depression. The youngest but one and only daughter of John and Cammie (Hale) Johnson, deceased, she spent her childhood being teased relentlessly by her seven ornery brothers, helping take care of her little brother, Bob, and walking to her uncle Morgan Connor's post office/general store for a rare taste of candy. In 1937, thanks to the generosity of a family friend, she was taken down to Roanoke for ice cream and to the theater to see Snow White and The Seven Dwarves. She said, "We had never seen anything like it." The family moved to Ohio when Mary was nine years old, where she confessed that she was initially horrified by the lack of mountains. They settled first in West Florence and then in West Manchester. Mary was forever affected by the death of her beloved brother, Darrell, in the Allied Invasion of Normandy. During high school she worked at Laird's Grocery and Chenowith Drugstore in West Manchester and she and her family were embraced by the community. She met and fell in love with her husband, Windy, and they were inseparable for over 60 years. Mary attended West Manchester School and was a 1950 graduate of Monroe School. She attended the West Manchester Evangelical United Brethren Church, serving as their secretary/treasurer, and Castine Church of the Brethren after her marriage, where she taught Sunday School. She studied Psychology and Divinity at Earlham College. She also served as a Monroe Township Poll Worker for the Board of Elections for several years. Mary loved people and never met a stranger, went out of her way to make everyone welcome in her home and was known as a "wonderful friend." She valued justice, fairness and empathy above all things and was always ready with her famous secret-recipe pie, a pot of baked beans or a compassionate ear in times of tragedy or loss. She had a keen business mind, was quick to laugh and always ready with a joke. She went through her days singing and was often known to grab her granddaughters by the hand and do a little dance. She was the first one up in the morning and the last one to bed at night, working swift circles around everyone in the house and the enormous garden. She is preceded in death by her husband, Winfield Condon; her parents, John and Cammie (Hale) Johnson; her father and mother-in-law, Charles and Esther (Petry) Condon; five brothers: Charles Johnson, Marshall Johnson, Frank Johnson, Darrell Johnson and John Johnson; one grandson, Shane Becker; and her best friend and cousin Elizabeth "Betty" (Duweese) Hale. She is survived by four daughters: Cathy Condon, Debra and son-in-law Jack Azbill, Sharon Condon, all of West Manchester; and Lynn and son-in-law Robert Becker of Brookville; granddaughters Cammie (Chris) Ledbetter and Stacey Becker; Step-grandsons William (Sandra) Becker and Jeffrey (Tiffany) Becker; Great-grandchildren: Ethan Ledbetter, Ava and Zachary Peters; Step-Great-Grandchildren: Chris Ledbetter; Dylan, Dalton, Logan, Lillian and Alexis Becker; two brothers: Delmus Johnson of Eaton and Bob (Sharron) Johnson of Lawton, Oklahoma; and dear friend, Helen Oler. Visitation will be held on Saturday, August 30, 2014 from 1:00 pm until time of funeral services at 3:00 pm at the Girton Schmidt & Boucher Gard Funeral Home, 226 West Main Street, Eaton, OH. Interment will follow at Twin Chapel Cemetery in Monroe Township, Preble County, Ohio. Online condolences and other remembrances may be sent to the family by visiting www.gsbfuneralhome.com.