Mary C Wertz

Mary Carroll Wertz, 89, passed away at her home, surrounded by her four children, on September 6, 2010. Mrs. Wertz had lived in the Kansas City area for more than 50 years. She was a loving, tender-hearted woman of many passionate interests, first and foremost among them her family.

She was born in Mauston WI on July 9, 1921. Her diverse and lively family moved to Ohio early in her childhood, and she attended Akron (OH) University, majoring in Speech and Drama. World War II interrupted her education but not her determination to educate herself. During the war, she met Richard Wertz, a U.S. Navy aviator active in the Pacific theater, and they married in 1944. After the war, they made their way to Missouri, where Mrs. Wertz remained for the rest of her life.

For nearly 40 years, she worked for the Bill Allen automotive organization in Kansas City, meantime raising four children and maintaining a strong connection with the Catholic church. Despite the onerous demands on her time, she became the first woman president of the NKC Chamber of Commerce in 1981, and played active roles in numerous civic committees under Mayors Charles Wheeler and Richard Berkeley, and on the early civil rights committee organized by Alvin Brooks. Training adults and children in scripture reading was a strong interest; she served as a lector and trainer for many years at her church, St. Charles Borromeo.

In her sixties, she eagerly resumed her education at Maple Woods Community College and Rockhurst University, and at a vibrant age 80, earned a Master's certificate from Loyola University in Pastoral Counseling. She had been impressed, in 1994, by the hospice care given to her husband during his last weeks of life, and focused her newly-won education on promoting hospice care at North Kansas City Hospital, where she became an active member of the hospital auxiliary, serving as Auxiliary president 2003-2005. Her own last years of grave illness were tended to by the expert staff of Northcare Hospice.

Mrs. Wertz loved to be among her friends and family, and to share with them her passions for music, theater, ballet, reading, travel, and her devout faith. She traveled widely and exuberantly in her seventies, going to Central America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, making new friends wherever she went.

She leaves a family as devoted to her as she was to them: three daughters and a son: Mary Hutchinson, her husband Michael, of Kansas City; Karen Chambers, who shared a home with her for 12 years; Anastasia Hobbet, and husband Randall, of Walnut Creek, CA; and Rick and wife Linda, of Sugar Land, TX. She also leaves two sisters, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

A visitation and celebration of her life will be held 6-8 pm, Sunday, September 12, 2010, at McGilley Antioch Chapel, 3325 NE Vivion Rd, Kansas City, MO 64119, with a prayer service at 7:00 pm. A memorial mass will take place at 9:00 am Monday morning, September 13, 2010, at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, 900 NE Shady Lane Drive, Kansas City, MO 64118.

Donations in Mary Wertz's name may go to NorthCare Hospice, 2900 Clay Edwards Drive, North Kansas City, MO 64116, or to The Guatemala Project, c/o St Charles Borromeo Church, 900 NE Shady Lane Drive, Kansas City, MO 64118.

www.mcgilleyantiochchapel.com