Mary Ann Moser passed from this life on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024, at Paradise Creek of Cascadia in Moscow. She was 96.
Born on Christmas Day, 1927, Mary Ann was third of the four children of Alois and Lillian (Stevens) Moser. Mary Ann and her siblings grew up on the 240-acre family farm surrounded by nature. She attended Colton High School, from which she graduated in 1945 as valedictorian. She next attended Holy Names College in Spokane and graduated from Marylhurst College in 1953. During her undergraduate career, Mary Ann took a few years off from school to answer the call of God and take her vows to become a Sister in the Holy Names teaching order.
Sister Carol Mary, as she was now known, spent the next quarter of a century at various teaching positions around the Pacific Northwest. For her early jobs she taught religion, English, physical education, health and Latin in various private and Catholic high schools. After receiving a master’s degree from Gonzaga University in the early 1960s, Sister Carol Mary began to teach at the collegiate level instead.
In 1973, Mary Ann made the difficult decision to leave the Sisterhood, as changes to the Order made in response to the Vatican II Council had led her to feel this was no longer the life she had been called to. She moved to California with one of her friends who left the Order at the same time, and they both got jobs doing clerical work for the U.S. Navy shipyards.
In California, Mary Ann was able to catch up on many life experiences that had not been available to her as a Sister, notably that she fell in with Heinz Heine and enjoyed going RVing with him. They had a somewhat tumultuous relationship that lasted until 1983. At this time, Mary Ann decided she needed to move on, and came to Moscow to spend time with her dying father. She received certification as a nursing assistant and became his primary caregiver for the next two years until his passing.
At this point, Mary Ann found a way to integrate both her religious life and her caregiving experience, and became a lay chaplain at Mercy Medical Center, the final step in her career from which she retired in 1993. Upon her retirement, Mary Ann returned to her RVing lifestyle, traveling the country — though mostly sticking to the west — and even venturing into Canada and Mexico. The freedom of this lifestyle was unmatched, but traveling alone was dangerous, and eventually she returned to Moscow to “settle down,” though she remained an active woman in a variety of ways, going on bike rides, cruises, and doing volunteer work for her church, St. Mary’s and the local hospice.
Mary Ann is preceded in death by her brother, Bob and sister Polly. She is survived by her sister, Rita Jacksha of Moscow and four generations of nieces and nephews.
A very special thanks to the staff and caregivers at Paradise Creek (formally Good Samaritan) for their loving care of Mary Ann these last seven years. They shared smiles, laughter and life together and made her time there the best it could be. Thank you all.
The recitation of the rosary will be at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 618 E. First St., Moscow, followed by a memorial Mass celebrated at 4 p.m., and a reception following Mass at the St. Mary’s Family Center. Burial will take place at a later date at St. Gall Cemetery in Colton.
Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Short’s Funeral Chapel in Moscow, Idaho shortsfuneralchapel.com.
