Woman lived quite a life during her 102 years

Editor’s note: This profile of Mary DeVries had been scheduled for the Active Seniors page in the Daily Inter Lake. However, DeVries died July 30 at The Springs at Whitefish Assisted Living Community. A memorial service was held Sunday.

Over the span of 102 years, Mary Alice DeVries went from homesteads in Oklahoma and Eastern Montana to a long retirement in Polson.

DeVries celebrated her 102nd birthday on July 17 with her family at The Springs in Whitefish.

One of six surviving children, DeVries was born in Oklahoma in 1908. Her parents had come to Oklahoma just a year before as hopeful homesteaders. In a memoir, she wrote of her father telling her they had “sod crops” of corn, cotton and a new baby girl.

“That’s why I call you my Oklahoma sod crop.”

By the time she was 6, the family gave up on its Oklahoma dream because her father, then 50, had tuberculosis and his doctor thought the Eastern Montana climate might help. Her mother later was diagnosed with the disease.

They moved to a homestead near Winnett in about 1914 where they struggled to expand a herd of cattle until disaster struck as recorded in her memoir.

“The winter of 1919 and 1920 was a terrible time for stockmen in Central Montana. An early snow was followed by a light Chinook and a quick freeze, which left a glaze of ice everywhere. Cattlemen depended on their cattle grazing on the open range. This winter there wasn’t any open range.  Cattle got weak from lack of grass. Once they slipped on the ice, they were good bait for coyotes. Daddy had bought 100 head of cattle. His losses were heavy. The summer before we had a bumper potato crop.  By feeding potatoes and what little hay he could find to buy, he was able to save a few choice cows.”

Her father traded his few remaining beef cows for dairy cows and operated both a dairy and a water wagon.

Her father’s luck changed for the better when oil was discovered at Cat Creek with Winnett the closest town.

“By now the railroad had come,” DeVries recalled. “In a few months after oil was discovered,  Winnett changed from a little town of less than 100 people to a boomtown of two thousand. Fresh milk was a luxury and commanded a good price.”

As her father’s health worsened, the family moved into Winnett where he started an insurance business and was elected justice of the peace. 

“Life was a little easier for Mother after we moved to town. I shall never forget the joy of coming home from school and seeing Mother in a fresh blue-and-white checked tissue gingham dress, crocheting. It is my first memory of her when she wasn’t working.”

DeVries started in a one-room schoolhouse and kept at her education until she graduated from Montana State University in 1934. She took a first job teaching English and history in Winnett long enough to pay off her student loan.

She moved on to office work in the Animal Husbandry

Department in Bozeman where she was working until what she called the most important day of her life — March 17, 1937. It was the night of a date for a dance that she almost canceled when her folks paid her a surprise visit.

“I told daddy I wasn’t enthusiastic about the date and that I would call Kelly and cancel. My dad informed me in no uncertain terms that a lady did not cancel a social engagement.”

As it turned out, another couple came with them that included her future husband, Herb DeVries. The two were married Dec. 23, 1937, a union that lasted more than 53 years.

Also a graduate of Montana State University, Herb first taught in Hingham. He then worked for the Soil Conservation Service in Idaho and Montana. Most of his career was spent as a county extension agent in Colorado and Chinook.

DeVries was happy as a homemaker raising their children, Noel, Gail, Gordon and Kathleen, who all graduated from Montana State University. She took several positions, including as a teacher and social worker, to help put them through college.

In retirement in 1970, the couple moved to Polson and built their dream house on Polson Bay where they welcomed visits from their children and 12 grandchildren.

“We loved Polson and were active in church, square dancing, bridge, senior citizens, Loaves and Fishes,” DeVries wrote. “I took up oil painting.”

Her family expanded to 23 great-grandchildren. She said education always was a high priority in the family and she took pride in her family’s accomplishments that include two doctorates and an M.D.

Her local extended family includes Dr. Jennie Eckstrom in Whitefish and Craig Walker of Bigfork, who holds a doctorate in psychology and is a licensed counselor. DeVries enjoyed spending time with her daughter Kathy Walker and her husband, William, who live on Flathead Lake in Dayton.

As she celebrated her 102nd birthday with her family, DeVries had no regrets about her life, as she expressed in a recent addendum to her memoir:

“I am blessed by a loving heavenly Father, a wonderful family, and have lived a full life.” 

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.