Mary Helen Plumb

Born in Eu Clair Wisconsin on December 14th, 1931, it is wholly appropriate to say that Mom was a woman of her era, except for a couple of interesting things. We kids all remember her young girl stories about growing up in Salt Lake City not as a Mormon, appreciating the straight forward, non-judgmental way in which she described holding hands on a date until she was asked what Ward she belonged to – off went the hand holding!

Also, at 50 years of age, after raising 5 kids (and 5 cousins for a couple of years), she got her Master’s in Education and used that to help special needs children, including producing a series of video tapes for her teaching brethren about what she had found effective and useful. And, like her husband, she took up a hobby (watercolor painting) and continually improved her skill and satisfaction.

Speaking of being a Mom, she’s survived by a whole passel of kids, nieces, nephews, grandkids and great-grandkids and at 93 maybe a couple of great-great-grandkids on the way! But, in a rare partnership with her husband, she also mothered hundreds of kids, particularly girls, in the Royal Lancer’s Drum and Bugle Corps. In what to this day is very rare: She even started and directed her own corps, the Third Regiment, one alumni of which just got inducted into the Drum Corps World Hall of Fame.

And we’re all proud to say that she took up and won the challenge of adopting the computer age, more so than 90% of her generation. It’s very fitting then that when informed of her passing, nearly 200 Facebook postings commented/acknowledged her impact on their lives, for which all her family is most proud.