Mary Louise Humber

February 4, 1926 – March 6, 2021

Mary Louise (“Mary Lou”) Humber, 95, died Saturday, March 6, 2021, in Carlsbad, California. Mary Lou was born in Sacramento, California, on February 4, 1926, the only child of Richard A. and Genelle E. Stam.

Mary Lou was raised on a turkey ranch in Elk Grove and graduated from Elk Grove High School in May 1943. She attended several semesters at the University of California, Berkeley, where she met her future husband, Harold “Hal” Humber, in the Methodist Cooperative. Hal and Mary Lou were married on July 12, 1947, in San Francisco, after Hal returned from serving his country as a radioman-waist gunner on a B-24J Liberator in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theater. Hal passed in 2012, just nine days short of their 65th wedding anniversary.

Hal and Mary Lou raised two sons, Steven Vaughan and Kent Alan Humber, in a quintessential Norman Rockwell household in South San Francisco. The Methodist Church and the Boy Scouts of America played a big role in the family, with both Hal and Mary Lou serving as leaders in the Scouting Program in the San Mateo County Council, and both of their boys earning the rank of Eagle Scout. Also paramount in their lives were the times spent with Hal’s three older brothers Herbert, Merrill, and Vernon, and their families, who all lived in the Bay Area.

In addition to serving as a Den Mother, and an Instructor who trained volunteer leaders in the Scouting program, Mary Lou worked countless hours supporting Hal’s role as a Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, and Explorer Advisor in addition to working at the San Mateo County Council Office for the Boy Scouts of America. She was also an accomplished quilter and artist, working with oils and acrylics, but her true passion was painting with watercolors.

In 1973, with their two sons off to college, Hal and Mary Lou moved their business and home to Hathaway Pines in the heart of the California Gold Rush country in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. They opened "Stained Glass, Etc.", a stained glass and gift shop. The shop showcased Hal’s stained and leaded glass work, Mary Lou’s watercolors, and works from local artists in the Mother Lode Country. While in their beloved mountains, Mary Lou was a founding member of the Independence Hall Quilters and taught quilting to members of the community, as well as in the local Junior College in Sonora, California. She helped design and orchestrate the creation of the Calaveras County Bicentennial Quilt and contributed the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County appliqué for the California Sesquicentennial Quilt.

Hal and Mary Lou remained in Calaveras County until 2008, when they retired and moved to Carlsbad in southern California to be close to their younger son and his family.

While living at La Costa Glen, Hal and Mary Lou were very active in writing letters and sending packages to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan through the La Costa Glen based charity, "Care Packages from Home”. Hal and Mary Lou loved receiving letters from the men and women of our military and promptly answered each and every letter with heartfelt messages of thanks for their sacrifice and service to the country they both loved.

Mary Lou touched many hearts and lives during her 95 years, and will be sorely missed by all who knew and loved her. She was the mother, grandmother, and friend that everyone should be so lucky to have.

Mary Lou is survived by her son, Steven Vaughan Humber and his two children, Brian Vaughan Tadashi Humber (Blair), Brittany Mariko Boman (Zack), and three great-grandchildren, Holland Mae Boman, Hinckley Jan Boman, and Benson Darrell Boman. Also surviving is her younger son, Kent Alan Humber (Candace), and their three children, Conor Alan Humber, Carolyn Christine Humber, and Christian Kent Humber.