Mary Pulos MacClanahan

Mary Pulos MacClanahan, 101, stepped into eternity with her Lord and Savior Jesus at the Yountville Veterans Home of California on April 19, 2025, where she had lived for 29 years.

Born October 10, 1923, in Keene, Calif. to Steve and Petra (Silva) Pulos, Mary grew up in Mojave, Calif., third eldest of seven brothers and one sister. There she became a nurse and practiced that calling up through her marriage to George R. MacClanahan Jr. on June 1, 1948.

Mary's life's passion was her family... marriage and motherhood, that and compassionate care for virtually anyone blessed to be near her. Her love for her family, supreme competence, and dauntless disposition created in her the essential divine giftings of mother and wife, for whom life with George would soon provide a wealth of breathtaking new opportunities and challenges. Slipping from the loving cocoon of her large Mojave birth family, Mary continued working as a nurse in Sacramento for two years while she and George coalesced dreams of their new life together, until July of 1950 whereupon the absolute wildest of impulses suddenly launched them upon their exhilarating journey. A voyage that would encompass ten years of bracing pioneer life in the Alaskan territory including the birth of three children, two years overseas within the auspices of the US foreign aid program experiencing countless wonders of Sri Lanka and points of the globe in between, and back to Alaska for another ten years of shepherding her flock through ever heightening atmospheres of aspirational life. Mary was always up for the next big adventure, always the good sport, always there keeping the trains running on time. To her family she was, quite simply, every needed thing.

With the arrival of grandchildren came new outlets for her boundless love, with brief morning strolls stretching into enchanting explorations of bugs and leaves and myriad other of nature's divine mysteries. Grandma was larger than life.

In her later years Mary served as receptionist at the Veteran's Home Hospital, becoming revered for her selfless nature and close friendships among many of her 3,000 fellow residents. She could always be seen coming and going with spinning rainbow pinwheel adorning her bright red scooter.

Mary was a devoted wife and a caring mother. Her deep love for people she attributed to her Lord Jesus Christ. It is no surprise that she joined Jesus the Saturday before Resurrection Sunday.

Mary was predeceased by her husband of 62 years, George, her daughter Marjorie Rose, her parents, her brothers Pablo, Pete (†WW2), Chris, George, Louie, Jimmy and David, and sister Susie. She is survived by her daughter Anne (Bill) Barrett of Peyton, Colo., son Ray (Terry) MacClanahan of Plymouth, Calif., and son-in-law Gary Rose of Yountville, Calif., plus 14 grandchildren, 31 great grandchildren, and 1 great-great grandchild.

Arrangements were cared for by Treadway & Wigger Funeral Chapel of Napa. She will be interred with her husband at the Yountville Veterans Home Cemetery.