Mary Elizabeth Jensen Pedersen
Gaffney, SC - - Our beloved Mom left this earth on January 15, 2025, slipping peacefully away only a few weeks before her 100th birthday. It was almost like she had gotten out of bed and was silently cruising the halls of her house in her wheelchair, hoping we wouldn’t hear or notice.
Mary was born on February 8, 1925, on the family dairy farm, Clover Dell, halfway between Waupaca and Weyauwega, Wisconsin to John Jensen and Verna Mae Jensen. As a ‘farm girl’, Mom learned about chickens, cows, sheep, how to harvest and preserve the produce from Grandma’s 2-acre garden, how to sew on Grandma’s treadle sewing machine, and hundreds of other skills. Her love of the land engendered the same respect and love for growing things, especially crops, flowers and puppies. For several years after moving to Cherokee County, SC, she had a 2-story greenhouse on the south side of the house that Dad had built for her, where she could raise every kind of flower you could imagine. But after moving from the Midwest to the Southeast, her big frustration was not being able to grow apricot trees or sweet corn.
Mom and Dad (Arthur Morris Pedersen, MD) met at Dana College in Blair, Nebraska and were married on May 11, 1947. Coincidentally, Dad had also been born in Waupaca, but when Grandpa Pedersen went into the Public Health Service they moved away and lived in many towns in Iowa and Nebraska. Eventually, Dad’s family settled in Blair. Dad went to the University of Nebraska, School of Medicine for his MD, while Mom earned her RN at Milwaukee General Hospital. They settled in Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the Missouri River from Omaha. Their children, Barbara Jean was born on November 25, 1948. William Allen (Bill) was born on May 18, 1951 and several years later, Nancy Lynn was born on April 25, 1958. It was easy to see the favorite in the family, but Nancy was such a sweetheart that neither Barb nor Bill was jealous in the least.
Dad was team doctor for the Thomas Jefferson HS football program, where he met Steve Field, Vice Principal. Steve raised and showed Rough Collies, which fascinated Dad. Soon our backyard was home to a pair of Collies, Prince and Muffy (who protected us by barking at butterflies). The neighbors were annoyed, prompting Dad to build outside city limits to pursue his hobby of Collie breeding. And that’s how Mary learned to raise and show their dogs. Several years later, the kennel expanded to include Bouvier des Flandres. CH Bibarcy’s Soldat de Plomb (Sarge) worked his way to becoming the #1 Bouvier in the nation. Quite an accomplishment, especially when one considers that petite Nancy could take Sarge into the ring on a Chihuahua lead.
Bill and Barbara spent every summer on Grandpa and Grandma Jensen’s dairy farm to give Mary a break and allow her to heal from her fight with polio. While on the farm, Grandpa Jensen taught Barbara how to ride horseback while he farmed with his team of Belgians, Babe and Nelly. Bill decided he’d rather learn how to drive the tractor, though. Don, Mary’s brother, helped Grandpa on the farm and rented horses during the summer for us kids to ride. Barb didn’t really have a favorite, until Lightning came along one year and was bred to a Thoroughbred owned by one of Don’s friends. The next year Lightning foaled a dappled Palomino colt, Sunny, on the very same day as Nancy’s birthday.
Grandpa Jensen began Sunny’s training and built a solid set of habits so that we kids could do almost anything with him without fear of being kicked. When he was moved to Iowa we kept him in our fenced backyard by day and stabled him in the garage by night. But then there was the problem of where to keep him when the family was out of town on weekends for dog shows. And that’s how we came to move further out into the County, to the former State Orchard farm. And that’s how Mary learned about horse shows. We didn’t have a horse trailer, yet, so when Barb found a show close enough to our farm to ride Sunny to it, Mom would patiently follow in her Mercury station wagon, flashers blinking the whole way. Not too much later, Bill got interested in riding around our pasture, so Patsy, a buckskin Quarter Horse, came to be his ride and Sunny’s pal.
When Nancy turned 5, she wanted to ride too. So Mom and Dad took Patsy to George and Vivian Stock to be bred. The next year Gypsy was foaled, the cutest little sorrel filly you ever did see. From Gypsy and Nancy going to horse shows, they met Marsha Stacy and learned how to do competition barrel racing. By that time Dad had moved the family to Cherokee County, SC because he didn’t want to shovel snow any more. And that’s how Nancy got started in rodeo, and how Mary learned about rodeo competition and the good people who do that.
Mary is survived by her children, Barbara Williams (Loren M.), Bill (widower of Tricia Treen Pedersen) and Nancy Sasser (Earl). Four grandchildren, 8 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren with a great-great-grandson on the way. As well as nieces and nephews all over the world; and a great crowd of dear friends gathered from her travels.
A Celebration of Mom’s Life will be held on February 8, 2025, her 100th birthday, at 2:00 PM in the Event Hall of CHAPS, 301 College Dr, Gaffney, SC 29340. In lieu of flowers please contribute to the Danish American Archive and Library, 1738 Washington Street, Blair, NE 68008.
An online guest register is available at www.blakelyfuneralhome.com
Blakely Funeral Home & Crematory, Gaffney, SC