Mary Jane Fahrenkrug

Mary Jane was, in the core of her being, first and foremost, a nurse. Her entire working life was devoted to caring for others. In 1969, she graduated from the Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing, Evansville Indiana. Mary Jane then went on to a 47 year career as a skilled, compassionate and dedicated RN. Her first position was in the Intensive Care unit of University Hospital, Jacksonville, Florida. She then continued in ICU at Saint Mary’s Hospital, Evansville, Indiana. It was at Saint Mary’s where Mary Jane was a key player in the establishment of the first dedicated Oncology unit in Evansville, a unit she then ran as head nurse.

In 1985, Mary Jane, her husband, Mark Fahrenkrug, and her beloved rescue dog Abe, set out for Seattle, Washington, looking to broaden their horizons.

In Seattle, Mary Jane became a member of the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. That Unit treated patients from around the world, while working to perfect the means and methods of transplants for cancer patients. In 1990, the head of the team, Doctor E. Donall Thomas, won the Nobel prize in Medicine for this work.

Mary Jane continued with Fred Hutchinson, which researched and develop new oncological procedures and was now using transplants to treat several types of Cancer. In 2016, she retired. That she was loved and respected by her patients is reflected in the many gifts and mementos given to her by cancer survivors from across the globe.

After retirement, Mary Jane and her husband, Mark Fahrenkrug, continued their exploration of the Pacific Northwest as well as New Orleans, Hawaii, Europe and Australia. She was particularly fond of the sleepy little town of Netarts, on the Oregon Coast, where they visited not long before her passing.

This obituary cannot adequately reflect how much this dedicated nurse and loving wife was loved and esteemed by those who knew her. She was kind, generous, caring, tolerant and nonjudgmental. The compassion of her profession imbued all of her. She will be sorely missed and long mourned.

Mary Jane was born in Evansville, Indiana, the daughter of Roy and Edith (Pauley) Perkins. She was preceded in death by her parents, and by her brothers, Ron, Jon and Thomas Perkins. Surviving her are her husband Mark Fahrenkrug; sisters Nancy Gehlhausen (Terry), Pauley Weyerbacher (John), and numerous nieces, nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews.

Donations in her memory may be made to Pasado’s Safe Haven, an animal welfare shelter:

https://www.pasadosafehaven.org/what-we-do/sanctuary/

Or to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center:

https://secure.fredhutch.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=adf_agiv&experience=october24&s_src=october24&s_subsrc=aegeo24101&utm_campaign=october24&fh_element=nonhptoputilnav&creator=rkd&team=philanthropy