Mary Evelyn Herrera

1957 - 2021

Mary Evelyn Herrera, an elementary school teacher for more than 30 years who brought a determined advocacy for her students' literacy, her colleagues' rights and her family's well-being, died March 12, 2021 after a decadelong battle with pulmonary fibrosis. She was 63.
Standing just 5-feet-tall, Mary was small in stature but had the opposite impact on those who knew her. Her passion for reading was the throughline for her career as an educator, which began at St. Anne's School but was primarily spent at Porterville Schools' Roche Avenue, Vandalia and Monte Vista elementary schools. She taught 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades, spending the most time as a formative influence on the youngest of those students - instilling a lifelong love of the written word through favorite stories such as Curious George and Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Mary also spent years with the Porterville Educators Association, including as secretary and school representative. She was known for fixing people's problems, being always available to listen and never shying from her duties, even during her last years teaching, when she carried a heavy oxygen tank to her posts. That same commitment extended to St. Anne's Parish, where Mary was a eucharistic minister, and to her family, to whom she was a loving wife of 41 years to Leo and a devoted mother to Mary Kristin and Matthew. Her home hosted many of her daughter's high school theater cast parties and her time even extended to planning the wedding of the budget-strapped friends of her son.
Born Sept. 19, 1957, in Anaconda, Mont., to Emery and Mary Alice Jones, a postal worker and schoolteacher, Mary was raised in Claremont, Calif. She graduated from St. Lucy's Priory High School in Glendora, attended Sacramento State (working summers at Disneyland) and received her bachelor's degree from Fresno State University in 1980. She met Leo while still in college - immediately impressing him with her fierce protectiveness of a mutual friend he had inadvertently disappointed - and the couple soon settled in Porterville.
Mary, who jammed books onto shelves all over her home, also enjoyed knitting, puzzles and traveling. After retiring in 2014, she and Leo trekked to Alaska, Maine and Grand Canyon, with Mary always planning the next adventure. When she could no longer fly, they drove cross-country to see their grandchildren. Besides her husband, Mary is survived by daughter Mary Kristin (Paul) LaRocco, of Yaphank, N.Y., son Matthew Herrera, of Porterville; and the grandchildren, Emmarie and Evelyn - to whom she cherished being the doting "Mim," always offering a puzzle or a sip of her "sweet" coffee. She is also survived by two younger sisters: Barbara (Louis) Smolinski, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and Janienne (Ron) Chambers, of Nampa, Idaho. Mary was predeceased by her parents.
A private service will be held on March 22, 2021. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Mary's name to childhood literacy programs.