Mary Bills

Mary Lucille Powell was born on Oct. 27, 1916, on the family farm on the Grand River in Gallatin, Missouri. She grew up there and graduated from Gallatin High School. Mary attended Northwestern Missouri State Teachers College in Maryville, Mo., and following graduation taught first grade in Hamburg, Iowa. She wed her college sweetheart (a “hasher” in her dorm) William R. Bills of Lock Springs and Maryville, Mo., at her mother’s home in Gallatin in August 1940.
At the end of World War II, Mary and Bill, along with their young daughter, Ann, moved west to San Jose, Calif., then up the bay to San Francisco. A few years later, with another daughter, Ginny, in tow, the Bills family moved to San Antonio, Texas. In 1960, the family moved to Novato, Calif., where they lived for the next 47 years.
Mary was always busy: keeping the family running, taking an active role in various PTAs, working crossword puzzles and playing solitaire in spare moments, and always gardening. She served as President of the Marin Country Club Garden Club, regularly played bridge with a group of friends and neighbors, and along with husband, Bill, was a longtime member of the First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael. She will be remembered as a caring wife, loving mother and grandmother, a gracious hostess and a good neighbor – even if she did have a little Missouri “show me” in her.
Mary is survived by her two daughters, Ann Wingren and Ginny Anderson, son-in-law Andy Anderson, and grandchildren Greg Wingren, Lindsay Harlan, and KT and Kelly Anderson.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, Bill, grandson Mark Wingren, and son-in-law, Marty Wingren.
In accordance with her wishes, no memorial service was held but a gathering of friends and neighbors celebrated her long and successful life.