Mary Jane Anderson Stiver, 93, a resident of Abernethy Laurels, Newton, North Carolina, passed away on Friday, July 3, 2015. She was born on April 2, 1922, in Washington, DC, the first child of Gunnar Ivan (G.I.) and Ruth Elizabeth Anderson Anderson. Her father arrived in America from Sweden through Ellis Island in 1916. Her mother’s parents, the Andersons, had arrived from Sweden in the 1870’s, settling in Duluth, Minnesota. Her parents met in a Lutheran Church in Washington, DC, during World War I.
Jane grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. Her father was a successful plumber and contractor. She attended Bethesda Elementary, Leland Junior High and Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, graduating in 1939. One of her favorite memories was attending the White House Easter Egg Roll. She kept the invitation from Eleanor Roosevelt.
Upon graduation from high school, Jane pursued a degree in nursing. She began at Capital University and completed her degree at John Hopkins School of Nursing in 1944. She served as an Army Corps Nurse (Second Lieutenant) from 1944 to 1945 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Following the war, she earned a BS in Public Health Nursing at Vanderbilt University (1948).
After Vanderbilt, she worked as a public health nurse in New Orleans, where she met and married The Reverend Stanley L. Stiver, Jr., on February 20, 1949. They lived for a year in New Orleans where their first child, John Mark Stiver, was born. The family moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, where Reverend Stiver served as pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church until 1959. Their second child, David James Stiver was born in Wheeling. During the summer of 1959, the family moved to Claremont, North Carolina, where Pastor and Mrs. Stiver lived and devoted their lives to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church until 1990. Pastor Stiver served as a Lutheran minister and community leader with Jane by his side. They could be seen walking hand and hand until his passing in 2011.
After moving to Claremont, Jane continued her career by teaching briefly at Lenoir Rhyne College (now University) in Hickory. She continued her teaching for seven years at Davis Hospital School of Nursing in Statesville before becoming its director in 1973. She earned a Master of Education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1976. She liked to tell the story of how she participated on the ropes course with the young students. Jane will be fondly remembered for her baking skills, especially cookies and cakes for the church and Blood Mobile. Stanley and Jane traveled extensively in Scandinavia, Europe, Holy Lands, Russia and China leaving behind many journals and slides of their trips.
Along with her husband and parents, Jane was preceded in death by her sisters, Grace Elizabeth Anderson Schlenk of Marietta, Georgia, and Ruth Iva Anderson Hansen of Duluth, Minnesota. She leaves behind her two sons, John Mark Stiver and his wife, Rebecca, of Newton, and David James Stiver and his wife, Lynn, of San Francisco, CA; four grandchildren, Jennifer Marie Stiver of Newton, Mark Elliott Stiver and his wife, Magdalyn, of Greensboro, NC, Daniel O’Connor of Salt Lake City, UT, and Steven Arthur O’Connor and his wife, Marisol, of South Pasadena, CA; three great-grandchildren, James, Franklin and Hyacinth; a brother, Paul Gunnar Anderson of Minneapolis, MN; several nieces and nephews.
A celebration of Jane’s life will be held at St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Claremont, North Carolina, on Saturday, July 11, 2015, at 2:00 p.m., Reverend Dr. Gary Haddock and Reverend Paul Christ officiating. Pallbearers for the service will be Mark Stiver, Glen Morrison, Charles Connor, III, Nicky Setzer, Jim Carpenter and Jerry Hodge.
The family will receive friends prior to the service from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. in the Sanctuary at St. Mark’s. Burial with Military Honors will follow the service at St. Mark’s Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 3216 West Main Street, PO Box 550, Claremont, NC, 28610 or to St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 629 Eighth Street, NE, Hickory, NC, 28601.
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