Mary Anne was born July 28, 1947, the only child of Lynn and Jennie Ernson. 

She died in Edmonds, Washington on April 21, 2020.

Mary Anne graduated from Helena High School in Helena, Montana in 1965.

While on a trip in 1980 to visit an old Helena friend who had relocated to Edmonds, WA, she met resident Michael Lord. The following year she resigned her job in the Tri-Cities area where she was an accountant for a large farming business. She returned to Edmonds to marry Michael.

While the marriage unfortunately ended in 2006, Mary Anne continued to live in Edmonds until she was hospitalized in 2017 and when unable to return to her home, she became a permanent nursing home resident until her recent death.

In 1983 Mary Anne landed a job with a growing Edmonds engineering firm. She loved her job and ultimately became the chief financial officer and human resources manager and stayed for decades. Although she suffered deteriorating health as she approached retirement age, she continued working from home part-time until 2017.

She never remarried and had no children. She loved and always lived with at least 2 cats. She also fell in love with Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo and in the 80’s and 90’s she served as a dedicated volunteer docent, her favorite and most frequent assignment managing the chaos of the extensive children’s petting zoo. One summer the zoo hosted a special program which included individuals of Maasai heritage and Mary Anne made new friends. Over the coming years she traveled often to Africa which she came to love, and in particular, fell in love with the Maasai people which resulted in her becoming a financial officer and intermediary for the charitable Maasai Association. She had many friends in the village of Mefushi in Kenya.

Mary Anne’s final two years of life were far from pleasant. She survived a serious health crisis, but severely poor health left her completely bed-bound in a nursing home. Having no children nor siblings, most of her long-time work friends retired and aging, she seemed to self-isolate and just gave up on any attempt at recovery. She became extremely private. She passed very, very suddenly and unexpectedly.

There were no services per her request.

Information provided by Mary Anne's ex-husband, Michael Lord