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TELL CITY – Mary Ella Ahlf Marcroft Thrasher, 91, passed away July 6, 2014, after living a very long and very full life. Mary was born April 25, 1923, in St. Louis, Mo., to Gus and Florence (Froelich) Ahlf and raised in Tell City.
She was preceded in death by her brother Robert Ahlf, her sister Nancy (Ahlf) Best, her former husband Keith R Marcroft and her husband, Hugh Thrasher.
She is survived by her daughters, Karen Marcroft and Joanne (Marcroft) Williamson, and grandson Alex Williamson; her stepdaughter Connie (Thrasher) Jaquith; sister-in-law Margaret (Treumpy) Ahlf and several nieces and nephews.
Mary loved music, international travel – especially to Switzerland, painting, education and Tell City and its history. Her life was filled with these things and other interests too numerous to list.
Mary was proud of her family and of her personal accomplishments, of which there were many. Mary was an organist, pianist, and choir member at the Evangelical United Church of Christ and was a 50-year member of Eastern Star. She was past president of the Lincoln Trail Organ Club, the American Legion Auxiliary and the Tell City Historical Society. She wrote and self-published a history of Tell City that the historical society distributes to the local schools. She was a wife and mother, a long-time substitute teacher in Prince Georges County in Maryland and Perry County school systems, secretary at the Perry County Extension Service and last but not least, she was a case worker for the Perry County Welfare Department.
She delighted in her Swiss heritage, carrying on long-term correspondence with her cousins in Switzerland and serving as a citizen diplomat by visiting Switzerland and by hosting Swiss visitors in her home in Tell City.
Mary earned a bachelor's degree in business from Indiana University in 1944 and a teaching credential from the University of Evansville in 1972.
She worked as a secretary to support her first husband and herself while he attended college and dental school. She lived in several other states including Washington, Utah, Missouri, Illinois and Maryland before returning to Tell City in 1970.
Later in life, she found new happiness in a second marriage to Hugh Thrasher and they spent their golden years together making music, traveling, gardening and staying active in their churches and the Tell City community.
Mary's greatest passion was the piano. She was an accomplished pianist, serving as a volunteer entertainer at the high rise (Twilight Towers), Oakwood Health Campus and Golden Living Center until she herself became a resident of Oakwood. She continued to entertain her fellow residents and the Oakwood staff with her piano playing until just a few weeks before her death. She will be missed by family, friends and all those whom she touched with her music, her community service, her dry humor and her zest for life.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 12, at Evangelical United Church of Christ. The Rev. JT Hills will officiate. Burial will follow in Greenwood Cemetery. Visitation will be at Zoercher-Gillick Funeral Home from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday with an Order of the Eastern Star service at 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the funeral home.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Evangelical United Church of Christ Building Fund.
Messages of condolence may be left online at www.zoercher-gillickfuneralhome.com.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
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