Mary Quick Garvey

Mary was born in Cairo, Illinois, on August 22, 1916, but she grew up in Minnesota. She lost her father, Aaron Benton Quick, to the flu pandemic in 1918, and her mother, Helen Mary Ruhnke, later remarried. Helen's second husband, John Solheid, was a widower with two daughters. Mary lived with her mother, stepfather, brother, step-sisters and, eventually, a half-brother in the village of Utica, where she attended a two-room schoolhouse. She later moved in with her grandmother and aunt in Winona, Minnesota, to attend high school. She graduated at age 16 and worked at a drugstore and later a clothing factory. She met her husband, Edward B. Garvey, in Winona, and they were married on April 27, 1938.

By 1946 they had three children: Dennis, Daniel and Kathleen, and they were living in Arlington, Virginia. Mr. Garvey's youngest brother, Louis Jerome Garvey, also made his home with them. Mary and Edward designed a house for their growing family, which Ed and Jerry built with their own hands over a two-year period. The Garvey family moved into their new home on Parker Street in Falls Church in 1949. The house was only about 60% completed when they moved in, and Mary helped with much of the interior finishing. Two more children, Sharon and Kevin, were born the following decade.

As a young couple, Mary and Ed enjoyed square dancing and duckpins. They continued their participation in league bowling for some 20 years, and Mary was so enthusiastic that, for a while, she simultaneously bowled in a women's league and a couples' league. Mary was a conscientious Catholic and an active member of St. James parish, participating in the Sodality for a number of years, and, after she was widowed, attending the gatherings for Catholic Seniors. She also volunteered at the Powhatan Nursing Home in Arlington when an older neighbor friend moved there in the 80's.

From her mother, Mary had learned how to put up preserves, and she continued the practice right up until the turn of the millennium. The family's favorites were raspberry and tomato, made from fruit grown in Ed's garden. Tomato preserves, rarely available commercially, were her specialty, and she made two delicious variants––one with lemon and one with fragrant spices such as cloves. She often made gifts of the paraffin sealed jars of amber goodness.

Mary loved to travel and she was a great driver. She was never known to make even minor driving errors, and she was renowned for her long distance stamina. When their family was young, she and Ed crisscrossed the country with them on car camping trips, and every summer Mary made the drive to Minnesota to visit her parents for a month. In 1965, she crossed the Atlantic for the first time––on a Norwegian freighter––to make an extended driving trip all around Europe with Kathleen, Sharon, and Kevin for company. After Ed retired, the two of them did much traveling abroad, but Mary began taking trips with friends and other family members, as well. Besides Europe, Mary visited the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, North Africa, Mexico, Guatemala, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Singapore, and Hong Kong. She happened to be staying with Kathleen and Hector in Guatemala when that country was devastated by the powerful earthquake of 1976, and she responded to the frightening emergency with the levelheadedness that she typically brought to alarms.

Mary is survived by four of her five children (Dennis having died in 2008), nine grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.