Mary Rhyne Downes

Mary Rhyne was born in Alabama, and grew up on a farm in Americus, Georgia. She and her four brothers and sister endured through the Great Depression and the whirlwind of World War II. Mary met her husband, Ken Downes, during the secretive Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where they married in December of 1946.

As the Atomic Age and the related research industries blossomed, Mary and Ken moved to Long Island, New York, raising a family of four, in the idyllic Village of Setauket.

Mary planted an orchard of fruit trees, gardened extensively, played tennis, and worked for a time at the local Post Office. Later, after their children were grown, Mary worked for the State University of New York at Stony Brook spearheading the landscaping of the new hospital. Ken and Mary travelled extensively around the globe and eventually retired to North Carolina.

Services will be held privately.

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