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Recent obituary: Mary Rosalee Greer

Mary Rosalee Greer was born May 6, 1928 to Goldie Conrad Brown and Dewey Brown in Lawrenceville, Illinois, in hardscrabble Southern Illinois prairie and farming country.

By the age of 2, her father had died and the country was plunged into the Great Depression. She was raised by her widowed mother who took in laundry to make a living. Mary made the most of a life that didn’t hand her any breaks. She bore two children at a very young age, and 3 more children after marrying US Army Staff Sergeant Charles Graham in 1948.

In 1951, Mary and her husband Charles left rural Illinois and joined the great Northward Migration for the chance of better jobs and a better living for their growing family. They settled in Ypsilanti where Charles worked as a welder in the decommissioned WWII bomber plant at Willow Run, and Mary worked in a dry cleaning shop. The marriage came to an unfortunate end in 1960 and she soon remarried.

Mary was small in stature, barely 5 feet tall but large in spirit, feisty and determined. She labored at many jobs including at the King Seeley factory and the Argus plant to make sure her children had everything they wanted and needed. Despite a lack of education and means, she obtained training as a beautician, saved her money and bought a house on Ann Arbor’s Old West Side with a small beauty salon attached. She worked there as owner-operator till she was well past the age of 75.

She died peacefully in hospice with family around her on Sept. 28, 2017 at 89 years of age.

For the full obituary, please click here.

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