Mary Elizabeth Berry

Mary Elizabeth Berry, 73, of Tucson, AZ, passed away on Sunday, June 5, 2022 after a hard-fought battle with cancer. She was born in Fort Meade, MD in 1948 to Kenneth and Eleanor Roane, but grew up in Colorado and eventually moved to Arizona after her marriage at ENT Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.

She is survived by her loving husband of over 50 years David; sons Geoffrey (Jennifer) Berry (grandsons AJ, Anderson, Wyatt) and Matthew (Jessica) Berry (grandsons Jackson and Hunter); brother Kenneth (Jill) Roane; sister Virginia (Robert) Bucheit; and numerous nieces and nephews. She is predeceased by her parents and brothers, Michael, Douglas, and Stephen Roane.

Mary was a graduate of Evergreen High School. With a 4 year academic scholarship she received her degree from the University of Northern Colorado where she was a member of SPURS Honorary Society and enjoyed intramural basketball. She furthered her studies at the University of Arizona. She pursued her calling for teaching for 34 rewarding years, always going above and beyond to ensure a positive learning experience for each student. She and several elementary colleagues ran the school’s extra-curricular Southern AZ Regional Science & Engineering Fair for many years. She was a “master” teacher.

Her talents and interests were numerous. She and her family enjoyed the outdoors –fishing, camping, and taking road trips. She loved being involved in her boys’ sports and schooling – assistant youth soccer coach, scorebook keeper for Little League, lane timer at high school swim meets, and treasurer of their elementary PTA. Later, with both boys in the military (one in the Marines and younger one in the Army Chemical Corp) and deployed to Kuwait for Iraqi Freedom, she stayed busy during this very worrisome time: teaching, sewing, quilting, knitting, landscaping, constructing Ponderosa pine needle baskets, and volunteering at the humane society and community pancake breakfasts. She attributes many new found interests to the “Can-Do-Gals” group established after retirement.

Always a mountain gal, she loved spending summers and vacations at the family’s log cabin in the White Mountains of AZ. A special treat was attending the Sipe Wildlife elk and humming bird seminars, and traveling in the Fall with her husband and special friends to the Big Lake area to spot herds of elk.

She was a member of St. Paul’s Methodist Church and was truly blessed by God. Most importantly, though, was her devotion to being a loving wife, mother, and grandmother.

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass… it’s learning to dance in the rain.”

A special thank you to our wonderful family, special friends, and dedicated doctors and nurses for their prayers, kindness, and support. Mary’s family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers during the more than three years she fought the battle with pancreatic cancer. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to your choice of charity, the American Pancreatic Network, White Mountain Humane Society, or Tunnel2Towers.