Mary Ann Shaffer

Mary Ann Shaffer (nee Fiery) Mary Ann Shaffer (nee Fiery), born December 13th, 1934, died peacefully at home with her family at her side on February 16th, 2008, after a brief and unexpected illness. Mary Ann was born and raised in Martinsburg and Romney, West Virginia. Her southern roots stretched across to the West Coast in 1958, where she and her husband raised their two girls. She made sure, however, that her daughters visited West Virginia often so as to keep that connection with the women back home. Mary Ann will best be remembered for her southern accent, her dark and sometimes fabulously inappropriate sense of humor, her endless capacity to make anyone feel they were the star of the show and her gracious view of others' foibles. She would want it known that she was very excited about Obama's prospects in the upcoming election. She would also want it known that even as her memory failed her in many aspects of her life toward the end, she was always able to snarl, "that jackass Bush" in response to the question "Who is the President of the United States?" Mary Ann's life was about writing, reading and story telling. She was a knock-out librarian, could direct anyone in any direction to the book they wanted/needed (whether they knew it or not), had read just about everything in the English language, and had an opinion on all of it. Locally, San Anselmo, Larkspur and San Rafael Libraries all benefited from her experience over the decades. She also worked at Harper & Row, sliding from the receptionist's desk into editing without anyone really minding. When that had run its course, she continued editing on her own and inspiring other writers, even as she wrote brutally frank assessments. Mary Ann, at age 71, was able to fulfill her lifelong dream of "writing a book someone would like enough to publish." Her manuscript, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" was sold to Dial Press in a competitive auction in '06, quickly followed by eleven other countries. Mary Ann was able to see the book published as "Eilandpost" in the Netherlands. Sadly, she passed away before the release of the book here in the United States. She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Carl Richard "Dick" Shaffer, her daughters Morgan Mattos (Larry) of Petaluma and Liz Froneberger (Henry) of Fairfax. Mary Ann leaves also her two grandsons, Eli and Jay Froneberger, her sister Cynnie (Jack) Barrows of San Anselmo, her nieces Annie Barrows (Jeff Goldstein) of Berkeley and Sally Barrows (Joe Molinaro) of Washington, DC. She leaves also her two great nieces, Clio and Esme Goldstein. We would like to celebrate Mary Ann's life with her friends at Deer Park Villa on March 9th at 11:30 a.m. Suggested donatons to: Elizabeth Froneberger T/F Mary Ann Shaffer Memorial Fund c/o West America Bank, 834 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo, CA 94960.