Mary Louise Reynolds

April 20, 1938 - September 19, 2017

MARY LOUISE REYNOLDS  Mary Louise Weisel was born in Los Angeles County, California on April 20, 1938. She was the second child and only girl born to her parents, John Levi Weisel and Eliza Jessie Richardson Weisel.  “Mary Lou” as she was known by the extended family when she was a girl was affected by her older brother, John Howard Weisel, whom she never met. John Howard was an absolutely adorable child with curly light brown hair and he died at 19 months of age, before Mary was born. Her younger brother James Lewis “Jimmy” Weisel was born in 1941.  As a child Mary loved all kinds of dancing, including tap dancing and ballet. And when she was old enough she loved going to Church dances where she was very “popular as a dance partner in spite of her shy personality. Her mother sewed her beautiful dresses for the dances and her Uncle Joseph Richardson helped her show off her dancing talents because was also a very fine dancer and he also provided her with transportation because her mother had a serious illness which prevented her from doing so.  Mary Lou was involved in many other good activities as a child including being a Girl Scout with her mother as the Scout leader. She learned to swim and had much practice in their home swimming poor, and she loved music and took many years of piano lessons.  Her mother’s illness resulted in many complications for shy Mary. Each day Mary was concerned when she walked home she might find her mother passed out on the floor or even dead. The neighbors and others began to stay away because they knew that something was terribly wrong when the ambulance showed up at the home from time to time. The result was that Mary was shut off from many teenage friendships, having tyo go home after school to care for her Mom rather than go to the homes of her friends.  Mary was a very student in high school and college, especially in mathematics, and her high school teachers encouraged her to be a math teacher. Mary’s parents believed that girls should not go to college but instead get a job and save for her “hope chest” for her future home and family. Therefore, Mary got a job in a bank where she met her friend Winnie Hall, and they remained best friends throughout the rest of her life. They both dated the same men at times and they got together after they were married. They were so close that Winnie Hall checked the hospitals in Provo, Utah, when she could not reach Mary on the telephone when she was gravely ill.  Mary was married Wesley Maurice and helped him get two degrees in Chemistry. Later she married Tom Reynolds and they lived in Canada where he was a famous radio personality. Mary always wanted children but she was not able to have any.  In the 1980s Mary went back to school, having attended college part-time while she worked at a bank. She attended Fresno State College but was considered too old to become a nurse, so she changed her goal slightly and became a hospital dietician. She got a degree in Dietetics at Fresno State in 1984, having moved home and being helped by her father who paid her tuition so she could attend college full-time. He realized that it would have been extremely difficult for her to finish her degree if she had to continue part-time. Mary did so well academically that she graduated at the top  of her class and was granted the internship she wanted as a hospital dietician at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston without having the usual in-person interview generally required.  Mary loved her life in Boston and her work at the Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical Center. She especially enjoyed and was proud of her participation in a special breast cancer study which changed the way hospitals treated breast cancer. Mary was known as the “prayer lady” at the hospitals because she cared so much about her patients that she often went to the chapel to pray for her patients. She had many different roommates and friends there, especially Arby Pell. She had many suitors also, including various men she met at a Church.  Mary always attended Church, but not the Mormon Church. When she lived in Fresno,  Mary attended the Seventh Adventist Church with her mother. Then when she lived in Boston she attended various Christian churches with her friends and roommates. She met many good friends there, especially Arby Pell, who had two girls from a prior marriage and they were like family with Mary. When Arby remarried and moved to Ohio, Mary moved with them, partly because Mary could no longer work because of health problems (seizures or strokes) for which Mary spent much effort learning to walk again many times. Mary loved her work at the hospital, and she was so good at what she did that the hospital held her job open for over a year.  In 2012 Mary moved to Utah where she had many relatives. There she regularly attended family dinners, other family activities, and the temple after she had been attending and relearning about the Mormon Church  Regarding the Mormon Church it seemed like she did not miss a beat. Wherever she had attended Church for the past approximately fifty years she always paid tithing to that Church. But Mary did drink coffee, and so when Jackie moved Mary into her basement apartment she told Mary that she would no longer need her coffee pot, and Mary allowed her to throw it away. Mary stated that she could not give up her diet coke, and about two or three weeks later the Church sent out a letter that coke was not part of the Word of Wisdom. Mary attended the Gospel Essentials class in the Edgemont 10th Ward in Provo Utah, having been baptized as a child, Mary became endowed on January 11, 2013.  After Mary had lived a little over a year in Utah she moved to Las Vegas to be close to her long-time friend Winnie Hall who helped Mary adopt a rescue dog named “Bitzi”. The rescue dog people told Mary that Bitzi was about 15 months old and full-grown, but Bitzi surprised us and grew to twice the size. I agree with Mary that Bitzi is the best dog in the world, and Mary has been a very devoted caregiver, taking Bitzi on approximately four walks per day.  Approximately a year later Mary moved back to Utah to be around all of her Mormon relatives there, and after living at the Villages of Timpanogos in American Fork she moved to The Seville in Orem, Utah where she has many friends. Mary will be remembered especially for her sweet personality as well as for her devoted care for her dog “Bitzy”. . . .  Mary was preceded in death by her family members as follows: her parents John Levi and Eliza Jessie, her brothers John Howard and James Lewis, her grandparents James and Marion Naylor Richardson and Charles and Rosa Paulin Weisel. Funeral Services will be held Monday, October 2nd, at 2:30 pm, at the Edgemont North Stake Center, 345 East 4525 North (Foothill Drive), Provo, Utah, where a Viewing will be held prior from 2:00 to 2:30 pm. Interment in East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery. Condolences may be expressed to the family at www.uvfuneral.com.