Mary Linton Wiltshire

Born in Fort William, Ontario, Canada, to William and Carrie Wright, Mary grew up in Fort William but had a life of travel and adventure with her life-long love and husband of 69 years, Gordon Wiltshire. Married on March 7, 1947, Mary and Gordy had four kids early on: Rob, John, Bev and Barbara. As the family grew, she was the glue that held it all together and did this difficult job with the skill and grace that made it look easy. Gordy’s engineering job required frequent relocations so he and Mary moved the family often as companies recruited him. Mary gamely rounded up the kids and bravely moved and moved again. Finally, in 1966 ending up in the Seattle area–recruited by Boeing. Here they found a place that suited them perfectly. They spent many years exploring the Salish Sea in their sailboat and touring the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. After raising her children, Mary worked for the Des Moines, WA library until her retirement. She and Gordy continued their journey by leaving the urban Seattle-Tacoma area and retiring to the natural beauty of Bellingham on the last day of the twentieth century. There they enjoyed an active retirement together until Gordy passed away in November of 2016. Although valued professionally for her library skills and even more as an extraordinary wife, Mary’s real area of excellence was as a mother. Her kids all agree, she would be tough to beat in a best-mother-of-all-time contest. She was smart, intuitive, kind, supportive, steadfast, understanding and all that wrapped up in a package with a great sense of humor. That good humor came in handy for us kids on occasion. She is survived by three of her four children: John Wiltshire (Gabina) of Everett; Bev Wiltshire (Richard) of Bellingham and Barbara Cummins, also of Bellingham. She is also survived by 11 grandchildren (who adored her), 13 great grandchildren, sister-in-law Bernice Robinson and sister-in-law and best friend Ruth Wright, both of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada and many loving nephews and nieces. In addition to the people in her life, she is also survived by her devoted dog, Charley. She was preceded in death by her husband Gordon and her son Robert who passed away in March of 2017. A memorial for Mary and scattering of ashes for both Mary and Gordon will be scheduled by the family when pandemic restrictions permit.

Mary Linton Wiltshire

July 24, 1928 - November 7, 2020