Mary Eileen Mann

Mary Eileen Mann, age 89 passed away March 21, 2024. She was born January 30, 1935 in Sumner, Illinois to Harlen Kenneth and Izola Mae (Adams) Abell. 
 
A nursing school graduate from Indiana University, Mary went on to Northwestern University for graduate studies in Chicago. Having met before the Korean War, and corresponded during his service, Mary married Dennis K Mann at the Evangelical United Brethren Church in Chicago. While supporting her husband through veterinary school at the University of Illinois, she started a family, ultimately raising four children. She followed Dennis while he pursued his academic studies at Tulane University and then back again to the University of Illinois. Along the way, photos of her bacterial mutation experiments wound up on the cover of a December 1968 issue of Science Magazine. She had many interests and led several community groups - University of Iowa Newcomers Club, Gourmet Club, Methodist Circle meetings, League of Women Voters, and later while in Centralia a member of the Willow Grove school board, a member of the Centralia First Presbyterian Church as well as becoming a local historian publishing a history of Willow Grove School, the Presbyterian Church and a history of Centralia’s “King of the Hobos”.
 
She is preceded in death by her husband of 57 years, Dr. Dennis K Mann, her daughter Marlys Kae, daughter-in-law Deborah (Virgulak) Mann, and her three brothers - Ralph, Russell and John.

Surviving family members include her daughter Teresa Celia Piliouras and her husband Byron of Weston CT, John Morgan Mann of Belen, NM, Eric K Mann, his wife Elizabeth and granddaughters Marie and Erica of Hillsboro, OR, as well as her brother Robert Abell of Indianapolis, Indiana, Frances Ridgely of Orlando, Florida, and close cousin LaDonna Jean Thomson of Lancaster, Illinois. 
 
Memorial services will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Centralia at 3 PM Friday, June 14th, followed by a graveside service at 11 AM Saturday, June 15th at Adams Corner Cemetery in Allendale, Illinois where Mary and her husband Dennis will be laid to rest. Online condolences and memories of Mary may be shared with her family by visiting www.maczfuneralhomes.com and/or on the funeral home’s Facebook page. Irvin Macz Funeral Home is privileged to be assisting the family of Mary Mann with arrangements.

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