Obituary

Mary (Craig) Herda was born in Glasgow, Scotland on July 18, 1925.  She passed away in Bellingham, Washington on April 30, 2021 at the age of 95.

In 1927, when Mary was just a toddler, she boarded a boat with her parents and older brother and sister to emigrate from Scotland to Canada.  The family settled on a small farm in Chilliwack, B.C. where Mary grew up.  Mary missed the beginning of school for several years because she was required to pick hops to help support the family. She remembered being in the 8^th grade and hearing Hitler rant and rave on the radio and said it was one of the scariest things she had ever heard. She also remembered hearing about the Pearl Harbor bombing on the radio and how her whole family was shocked and saddened.  When she was 17, she tried to join the Navy but was turned away because she was too young.

In 1943 Mary graduated from Chilliwack Junior-Senior High School and then went on to secretarial school where she excelled at shorthand.  She worked at Boeing in support of the war effort manufacturing ailerons for WWII planes.  Every week at Friday night dances, Mary danced with many of the soldiers in attendance. She said, “If a soldier asked you to dance, you weren’t supposed to say no.” She was quite athletic and played on a baseball team called the Bright Spots.

Mary married John Herda in 1952, and they moved to Bellingham where John worked for Puget Power until his retirement.  Mary and John built a house on Lincoln Street which they paid off paycheck by paycheck.  When I-5 came to town, they had to move the house to Alabama Street, where Mary lived for sixty years.

Mary was a lifelong Mariner’s fan.  She had a head for numbers and baked a mean apple pie. She was an excellent knitter and a Scot through and through.  She never squandered a nickel and always let you know what she thought.  During her life, she took trips with her sister to the “auld country” Scotland, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and took seven Alaska cruises. In later years she loved her morning coffee, daily newspaper, and appreciated people with loud voices who she could hear.

She is survived by her sister Janet Craig, her daughter Penny Page (Jay Teachman), her son John Herda (Teri), and her three grandchildren Lizzy Herda, Daniel Herda, and Ellie Page.

Many thanks to Whatcom Hospice and Spring Creek Memory Care staff for ensuring Mary’s last few days were as peaceful and comfortable as possible.

A graveside service will be held on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. in Bayview Cemetery’s Fountain Garden.