Mar. 3, 1924 - Nov. 15, 2015
Mary Elizabeth (Plants) Yost, 90, of Columbia Falls, MT and formerly of New Tripoli, PA and Fallon, NV passed away on November 15, 2014. She was the wife of the late Dr. Emerick Yost, Jr. Mary was born in Sandy Lake, close to Pennsylvania’s western border, on March 3, 1924. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Belle Chambers and Walter Stanton Plants. Mary grew up on her parents’ farm, the youngest of a family of six. She had three brothers, the late Seman, William and Warren and two sisters, the late Beatrice and Edith. She loved that country life and the closeness of her birth family - detailing their hard work and closeness in her memoirs. All her life, wherever she lived, paintings of welcoming, tidy farmhouses decorated her walls.Mary graduated from Sandy Lake High School on May 28, 1942. She worked for a time as a nursing assistant in a hospital. She contracted polio and was admitted to the Osteopathic hospital in Saginaw, Michigan on July 18, 1945. She survived this devastating and painful illness able to walk and was released on July 31, 1945. Mary bravely learned to use new muscles for her right hand. She met her future husband, Emerick, in Saginaw, Michigan, while she was working as a waitress and he was a draftsman for Vaultee. He was an interesting man and she loved to hear him talk. They married on June 30, 1946 just after the war ended. Once married, they moved to Allentown, PA where Mary worked at Raleigh’s, as assistant store manager, while her husband went to college and then medical school. Mary was her husband’s office manager from 1956, until his death in 1977. All of her daughter Joan’s friends remember her fondly as a kind and loving parent - always quick to whip up a plate of oven-hot sticky buns to make everyone feel welcome. After the loss of her husband, Emerick, Mary worked briefly as a dental assistant in New Tripoli for Dr. Lu. In 1979, she made the major life decision to uproot and move to Fallon, Nevada - where she worked with her brother Rev. William Plants and nephew, Rev. Walter Plants at their Country Church. Mary was a devout Christian, immersed daily in Bible study, and spent decades as the director of the Stillwater Reservation Mission Church. In spring of 2007, after 30 years of work for the church, Mary retired, moving with Sarah and Walter Plants to a new home in Columbia Falls, Montana. Her nephew Walter Plants and his wife Sarah were Mary’s devoted caregivers and close family all during her twilight years. Mary passed away at the Medical Center in nearby Kalispell from natural causes at 90. She was deeply convinced that she would spend eternity with all the close family that she loved so much. Mary did well at anything she did. Mary could sew up a storm and made many of her own clothes including a fine wool suite with a fur collar. She took a correspondence course in photography and passed her love of photography on to her daughter. She had a wonderful sense of humor and would crack jokes constantly to the delight of everyone who met her. She loved a good adventure: once, just before eagerly climbing in for a hot air balloon ride over Lake Tahoe, she joked to her daughter, Joan, “I’ll be fine... as long as I can keep one foot on the ground.” Mary is survived by her loving daughter, Joan Yost, her son-in-law, Eric Brandt, and many nieces and nephews. A memorial service for Mary will be held in Fallon, Nevada at the Gardens Funeral Home, 2949 Austin Hwy, June 20, 2015 at 3:30 p.m. Sympathy notes can be sent to her daughter, Joan Yost, P.O. Box 148305, Chicago, IL 60614-8305.
